A view of the Binh Duong Park Cemetery

Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City are building better cemeteries but real speculators have swooped in on the valuable real estate and spiked prices.

But Go Den’s title as Vietnam’s most modern cemetery has already been usurped.

The Binh Duong Park Cemetery in the southern province of the same name was launched one year later with an investment of over VND300 billion for its first stage.

Covering 190 hectares, the burial site was designed to meet the quality and safety standards of an urban zone. It has statues, avenues, and a European- incinerator.

It also has different areas reserved for different religions: one for Buddhists, one for Christians and one for non-believers.

In Tay Ninh Province, the Son Trang Tien Canh Cemetery sells plots at its $120 million, 100-hectare graveyard.

The burial grounds have modern facilities and the added perk of offering accommodation to family members who live far from the cemetery.

Investors in Hanoi haven’t missed out on the morbid opportunity for profits.

Hoang Thanh Thai, head of Hanoi Division of Funeral Service under the capital city’s People’s Committee, said at the moment two cemeteries, of 600 hectares and 50 hectares each, were under construction and would be opened soon in Ba Vi and Soc Son districts.

Another half-dozen graveyards are also slated to break ground in the north soon, including Lac Hong Vien in Hoa Binh Province, a VND1.5 trillion ($81.3 million) project invested in by Toan Cau Trade and Construction Investment Joint-stock Company.

Better rest means a higher price

At Go Den, a common grave costs VND15 million, while the more expensive spaces can cost up to VND550 million.

Binh Duong Park also offers grave plots at a variety of prices. Some cost VND50-80 million, while others cost VND200 million apiece excluding grave digging fees. It costs VND100-400 million to buy a family plot there.

Despite the high prices, people are still willing to buy, in hopes that their families will indeed rest in peace.

Tran Tuan Anh, sales director at the Lac Hong Vien project in Hoa Binh province, said that a grave there cost VND30 million on average. “We have signed 70 contracts since we opened a sales office two months ago.”

However, some experts warned that as people are not limited to the number of grave plots they buy and are not banned from transferring them, many real estate traders had turned to grave trading and were speculating on plots, sparking prices to high above the graves’ real values.

Grave plots are now advertised frequently on the internet by such speculators.

Thanh Nien found an ad offering two plots at nearly VND124 million and VND188 million at Binh Duong Park, while another listing for 12 plots at the same facilited listed prices at just over VND22 million apiece.

Reported by Quang Thuan – Bui Tran