Credit Flows Into Thu Thiem: MB Bank Fully Funds Phat Dat Stake in Lotte Eco Smart City

With just three days to go before the October 23, 2026 groundbreaking of two commercial towers at the long-stalled Lotte Eco Smart City Thu Thiem project, a quieter but equally important story is unfolding behind the scenes: a Vietnamese bank has agreed to finance the entire equity contribution of local developer Phat Dat into this VND 60 trillion ($2.27 billion) mixed-use project. For buyers and investors tracking Ho Chi Minh City’s prime real estate market, that credit policy signal may matter just as much as the ceremony itself.

Phat Dat completes its VND 7,666 billion buy-in, with MB Bank financing the deal

According to VnExpress (September 21, 2026), Phat Dat Real Estate Development Corporation (HoSE: PDR) completed payment of VND 7,666 billion in August 2026 to acquire a 35% stake in Lotte Properties HCMC, the entity developing Lotte Eco Smart City Thu Thiem. Phat Dat had earlier paid a VND 900 billion deposit after signing a cooperation memorandum with Lotte on May 26, 2026.

Following the deal, ownership of Lotte Properties HCMC now stands at Lotte Shopping 30.59%, Hotel Lotte 22.94%, Lotte Engineering & Construction 11.47%, and Phat Dat 35%. Notably, Vietstock reports that if Lotte Properties HCMC raises its charter capital to VND 12,000 billion, Phat Dat plans to contribute a further VND 2,726 billion to preserve its stake, pushing its total exposure past VND 10,000 billion. Crucially, Military Commercial Joint Stock Bank (MB) has signed a contract to finance the entirety of Phat Dat’s capital contribution. That is a meaningful credit-policy data point: a domestic bank underwriting the full equity ticket of a Vietnamese developer into a joint venture with a foreign conglomerate, on one of Thu Thiem’s largest mixed-use developments.

Why the project sat frozen for nearly a decade, and what finally unlocked it

Lotte Eco Smart City Thu Thiem has been studied since the late 1990s and was formally awarded to Lotte in 2017. A first groundbreaking took place in September 2022, but construction stalled afterward over unresolved issues: the ownership structure among member companies, external financing arrangements, financial obligations, and deadlines for land-use fee payments. Lotte repeatedly petitioned the city for a resolution.

The turning point came in June 2025, when Ho Chi Minh City approved a land valuation of more than VND 16,190 billion for the project — part of a broader wave of legal clean-up measures unlocking Thu Thiem and District 1 luxury projects — giving the developer a legal basis to settle its financial obligations. Lotte Properties HCMC reportedly completed its land-related payment, around VND 17,569 billion, on July 31, 2026 — the key condition enabling the October 23 groundbreaking. As announced by Phat Dat, the two commercial-service blocks (2-1 and 2-3), with roughly 171,580 m² of floor area, are scheduled for a 36-month construction period, targeting completion by 2029.

At full scale, the project covers about 7.54 hectares in functional zone 2A (now part of An Khanh ward), across six plots (2-1 to 2-6). The original master plan called for 11 towers of up to 50 storeys, and total planned investment has climbed to roughly VND 60 trillion — nearly triple the VND 20,100 billion originally approved. Phat Dat is directly developing the commercial podium, the basement levels, and blocks 2-1 and 2-3, while the residential blocks 2-2, 2-4 and 2-6 are being co-developed with Vietnamese partners.

Thu Thiem is pulling in major capital: from Lotte to Sun Group, from land auctions to financial restructuring

Lotte Eco Smart City is not an isolated case. Around the same time, Sun Group is preparing to receive land for a roughly VND 145 trillion project in the Rach Chiec area in October 2026 — a sign that large pools of capital, both bank debt and private equity, are converging on the city’s eastern corridor at a scale rarely seen in recent years.

On the land-policy side, Vietstock reported on October 6, 2026 that the Ho Chi Minh City government finalized an auction plan for five land lots tied to 3,790 resettlement apartments, completed back in 2015 but left vacant for over a decade in the 38.4-hectare An Khanh ward zone, after at least four previous failed auctions due to high reserve prices. In 2026, the city plans to auction 50 land parcels overall, eight of them inside the Thu Thiem New Urban Area. In parallel, the city’s Department of Construction says site clearance across Thu Thiem is now complete, paving the way for four main roads and the North-South axis to be finished within 2026.

Credit, land policy and infrastructure are now moving on an almost identical timeline in October 2026 — a convergence rarely seen in Thu Thiem over the past decade.

What this means for buyers of prime real estate in eastern Ho Chi Minh City

For end-users and investors eyeing luxury apartments, townhouses and villas in Thu Thiem, District 1, Rach Chiec and Thao Dien (typically priced from VND 120 million to over VND 600 million per square metre, depending on the project), these three policy threads carry practical implications — and they come on top of a market where Thu Thiem apartment prices have already doubled over the past few years.

First, a major bank like MB underwriting the full equity contribution of a domestic partner into a VND 60 trillion joint venture signals growing institutional confidence in projects that have cleared their legal obligations, even as retail mortgage rates above 11% a year remain a real burden for individual buyers.

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Second, as Lotte Eco Smart City and Sun Group’s Rach Chiec project both move into active construction in October 2026, nearby projects with clean legal status that are currently selling or being resold tend to reset pricing upward, on expectations that neighbourhood infrastructure and amenities will visibly improve over the next one to three years.

Third, Thu Thiem’s already-scarce land bank will keep shrinking as auctioned parcels convert into commercial housing. That is why projects with clear legal standing that have already topped out or are close to handover in Thu Thiem, such as Empire City, and in Rach Chiec tend to be the first choice for investors looking to get ahead of the next price reset triggered by these groundbreaking and auction milestones.

If you are considering a luxury apartment, townhouse or villa in Thu Thiem, District 1, Rach Chiec or Thao Dien and would like a detailed breakdown of a specific project’s legal status, construction progress, sales policy and cash-flow potential, feel free to reach out to me directly — Do Thanh Tong, a prime real estate advisor covering eastern Ho Chi Minh City since 2014 — for free, up-to-date guidance.

References

• vnexpress.net — Lotte Eco Smart City Thủ Thiêm dự kiến khởi công trở lại trong tháng 10 (Sept 21, 2026)
• nguoiquansat.vn — Phát Đạt (PDR) chốt ngày khởi công hai cao ốc tại “đất vàng” Thủ Thiêm (Sept 21, 2026)
• vietstock.vn — Long-delayed Thu Thiem project revived with $2.27 billion investment plan (June 30, 2026)
• vietstock.vn — TPHCM chốt đấu giá 5 lô đất với 3.790 căn hộ bỏ trống hơn thập kỷ ở Thủ Thiêm trong tháng 10 (Oct 6, 2026)
• plo.vn — Hoàn tất giải phóng mặt bằng, 4 tuyến đường chính ở Thủ Thiêm sẽ xong trong năm 2026
• cafef.vn — Sun Group “đổ” gần 30.000 tỷ vào lõi Thủ Thiêm xây trung tâm hành chính quy mô lớn nhất lịch sử