Vietnam is one of the fastest-growing economies in ASEAN. According to a joint report of PwC and the Urban Land Institute “Emerging Trends in Real Estate Asia Pacific 2018”, HCMC is ranked 5 in 2018 City Investment Prospects in Asia Pacific area, and ranked 2 in 2018 City Development Prospects. Foreign investments targ
Vietnam is one of the
fastest-growing economies in ASEAN. According to a joint report of PwC and the Urban Land Institute “Emerging Trends in Real Estate Asia Pacific 2018”, HCMC is ranked 5 in 2018 City Investment Prospects in Asia Pacific area, and ranked 2 in 2018 City Development Prospects. Foreign investments target on the residential properties such as condominiums and landed housings as well as office and commercial real estates. And this has been driving new opportunities of connected products and smart solutions.
Developers primarily eye on big cities such as HCMC, Ha Noi and Da Nang, where network infrastructure is comparatively complete; urbanization is rapid, and population is in high density. Total solution integrating multiple smart technologies is the prevalence for projects of smart homes, complex buildings, hotels or villas in the country.
Security, the irreplaceable demand
Within multiple sectors of smart home, market professionals all look into home security as the door knocker in Vietnam.
ION Smart from Vietnam, a distributor of IOTX Smartlife and
VIVOTEK as well as a system integrator of residential security solutions, is an expert of integrating CCTVs, intercom, smart camera, access control, and E-parking systems. Gordon Tat, Managing Director of ION Smart, said that security is the main concern and demand in Vietnam. “When incidents occur, or for proactive damage prevention, our solutions connect the systems, homeowners, emergency care takers and authorities such as fire or police department,” Tat explained.
Taiwan-based smart building and residential community solution provider,
HomeScenario has seen the development potential in the country. HomeScenario enters Vietnamese smart home market since 2015 with its specialization in smart building and hotel projects.
HomeScenario offers cloud-enabled building systems converging IP intercom, alarm, access control, video surveillance, concierge, and home automation, with IP intercoms as the core control and user interface. “As we deploy our building solutions around the world, we find that security is the key of smart home,” said Joel Liu, Vice President of HomeScenario,“ and in Vietnam, demand for home security is irreplaceable.”
Honeywell also values security control for house and villa owners. “Every Vietnamese family needs to feel safe and comfortable, while being able to enjoy what matters: the people and things that make their house a home. Honeywell’s technology enables homeowners to stay in control of home security, fire systems, and air and water purification, creating a home with ease,” said Mai Trang Thanh, President of Honeywell Indochina.
User friendliness walks home technologies into Vietnam
To get acquaintance with end-users in Vietnam, industry players topped the user-friendly controls as the most important consideration.
Commercial buildings, residential communities, condominiums, hotels or villas share a same idea: multiple housing units. This has great impact on the property developing cost. However, the comfort and convenience brought by smart home technologies is what really matters for buyer decisions.
According to ION Smart and HomeScenario, users implementing total solutions concern mostly the experience of how they interact with home technologies. Easy control interfaces receive positive reviews from home users. Scheduling function or learning algorithms that bring real automation and connection between user and homes are the key anticipation.
As a foreign company for Vietnam, HomeScenario brings precious experience from other markets, “Without transparent information like presales consultation and aftersales service, home technology is never complete,” said Liu, “it is challenging but a reliable guarantee to gain users’ hearts.”
While self-monitoring of home security is not yet prevalent in Vietnam, Phuongviet, a distributor of Hikvision in Vietnam, sees its potential of growth. “Entry-level DIY consumer market is growing fast as smart home security concepts have been spreading among end-users. People can first experience the easy installation and manipulation of some products, and this may create another smart home wave in Vietnam,” said Phạm Tuyet Phuong, Marketing Manager of Phuongviet.
Further, with young and growing population in Vietnam, the modern, tech-oriented generation is expected to embrace IoT technologies in their homes, therefore pushing demand upward. According to ION Smart and Phuongviet, AI functions and voice control compatibility is interesting for local users with personalized scenes and management.
Smart technologies make hotel guests feel at home
As home security solutions expand in Vietnam, basic items such as access control and security sensors are a must for new smart home projects, especially for the residential complex. Pioneering example can be found in Sakura Apartment in HCMC.
Moving on to the development in hospitality industry, Liu of HomeScenario analyzed the different demand in hotel and villa.
With smaller units but larger quantity, hotel projects tend to apply standardized application in every suite, including scene automation, curtain and lighting control, and voice-command products. System integrators, in this case, have the dominance in hotel projects. On the other hand, villas are having larger-scale but less unit. Therefore, comprehensive solutions such as ventilation, access control and fire alarm that can be seamlessly combined with respective interior design is required. Designer of villas has final decision on the systems.
All in all, hotels and villas equipped with modern smart home solutions gain positive feedback by their guest, driving a better profit for their business.
Smart home applications seen in growing areas
“The world is moving beyond stand-alone devices into an era where seemingly everything is connected, making connected home an inevitable trend in residential industry. That’s why we find enormous potential in this area and I am absolutely optimistic in IoT opportunities in Vietnam,” shared Thanh of Honeywell.
The challenges in Vietnamese market is still lying in price and awareness. Low-priced products from China are still competitive and widely deployed. “To step forward, decision makers and end-users in the market need more training upon technologies and applications to level up their awareness on smart home systems and solutions,” indicated Phuong of Phuongviet.
For next step, companies are looking to smarter solutions, not only for the high-end properties but the rising middle-class in vicinal cities. Home security solutions and automation control can be expected to apply in high-class trains, campus, rental offices, factories and training center in the coming future with a prospect to realize smart living in Vietnam.
SMAhome Expo Vietnam
16 - 18 August 2018 | HCMC
more information
here.