HCMC rejects joint venture's appeal over extra $333 mln land fee obligation

Ho Chi Minh City authorities have rejected a petition from the developer of a $1.2 billion property project to reconsider an additional land use fee of over VND8.8 trillion ($333.27 million).

The joint venture – Empire City LLC, comprising Vietnam’s Tien Phuoc and Tran Thai, Singapore’s Keppel Land, and Hong Kong’s Gaw Capital Partners – had sought a reassessment of the charge, more than double the over VND3.5 trillion ($132.55 million) it paid in 2017.

The case traces back to a 2019 government inspection that found the land value for the 11.5-hectare Thu Thiem site had been underestimated.

The project, awarded a 50-year lease in 2016, was slated to include residential towers, offices, and an observation tower.

Empire City has warned that the inflated obligation could push its liabilities into billions of U.S. dollars and risk international disputes.

It urged authorities to define liabilities based on the time of land allocation in 2015 and apply Circular 36/2014 (then-prevailing rules), while cautioning that frequent changes in planning risk undermining both state and investor resources.

At a Thursday briefing, the HCMC Department of Finance said the valuation council had approved the reassessment, which added more than VND5 trillion ($189.4 million) to the original fee, and stressed the process complied with government regulations.

Construction of the Empire City project began in 2017, with about 1,200 apartments already delivered, but has largely stalled since 2019 pending resolution of the financial liabilities problem.

Lotte Properties HCMC Co., Ltd. in August sent a document to Ho Chi Minh City's Department of Finance announcing the termination of its $900 million Lotte Eco Smart City project in the Thu Thiem New Urban Area.

Accordingly to the municipal finance department, on August 20, 2025, it received a document from Lotte Properties HCMC Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Lotte Group, informing about the termination. The department did not mention the reason for the move.

The Lotte Eco Smart City Complex project broke ground in September 2022, but it has not taken shape to date, reportedly due to legal entanglements including the issue of inflated land use fee obligation.