Vietnam News Network

Increasingly offices, apartment blocks, supermarkets and trade centres in Vietnam are being given western names.

In Hanoi, hundreds of offices, apartment blocs and trade centres with western, or western-sounding, names can be found, Dolphin Plaza, Hemisco Building, FLC Landmark Tower, Savico Plaza Hanoi, The Garden and Vincom Galleries.

The Bac Anh Khanh new urban area alone has two projects called Tricon Towers and Splendora.

Much has been made of a tendency for Vietnamese people to buy foreign goods – but do they also prefer foreign names?

Real estate developers say western names help them to sell products more easily. Cam Tu, a banking officer, said: “Buyers prefer to purchase apartments with foreign names, though they are expensive - because they believe the apartments are of higher quality.”

Thai Son, a real estate broker, added: “Project investors think foreign names will make people think that the products are ‘luxurious’, because in Vietnamese people’s eyes, foreign means higher quality.”

“The names of projects show the ‘class’ of the projects,” he said, though many projects with purely Vietnamese names like Xa La, Van Phu and Van Khe are still selling well.

However, Son says sometimes foreign names can cause trouble. In particular buyers cannot remember names of properties they intend to buy. Son even admits that he finds it hard - although he has to repeat the names everyday.

The Splendora development name has been often criticised.

Developers An Khanh Joint Venture say it is very proud of the name which was dreamt up in conjunction with a PR company.

The explanation is that ‘Splendora’ is the combination of ‘splendid’ in English and ‘ora’ in Latin, meaning ‘gold’.

However not all customers are finding it particularly splendid or golden.  Instead they claim they find it hard to remember and can’t even find it in the dictionary.  It is a western sounding word without real meaning in any language.

Le Khac Hiep, Chairman of developers Vincom said: “It is very difficult to set standards for naming projects. In some cases, there is no suitable Vietnamese word.  However, using English names for small markets will do more harm than good.”

An official from the Ministry of Construction (MOC) said that there is no regulation on naming real estate projects. The official added that Vietnamese names should be used for projects in Vietnam which make it easier to remember for Vietnamese people.