Hoi An/Quang Nam province construction report (2024)

Visiting the new urban areas, abandoned resorts, ghost towns, and haunted castles of the Hoi An-Danang resort coast.

Quang Nam province is in the South Central Coast region of Vietnam, south of Danang. Quang Nam is home to Hoi An, and there is a 30km stretch of beach between Hoi An and Danang that is being developed into a resort coast. There are many famous hotel brands along this coastline, and just as many stalled and abandoned hotel projects.

I visited Hoi An in October and November 2024, which is the wettest time of year to visit. I had sat out a typhoon in Danang a few days earlier, and I was beginning to question my judgment of scheduling a trip at this time of year.

The sun came out, though, and riding along the coast reminded me what a beautiful part of the world Quang Nam is when the sun is out.

Ha My Beach, Between Hoi An and Danang.

For this trip, I visited some of the abandoned projects along the coast, starting at the Danang/Quang Nam border (about halfway between Danang and Hoi An). There are also some new urban areas and hotel projects in Hoi An and to the south of Hoi An.

No trip to Quang Nam is complete without a visit to Hoi An Ancient Town, so I begin my report there.

Hoi An Ancient Town

Charming Hoi An Old Town

Hoi An Ancient Town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, so there isn’t much to say here on this site about future cities. I’m interested in historic preservation, and the biggest story of 2024 for Hoi An was the completion of the Japanese Bridge restoration.

Initially, there was some shock at the newness of the bridge when it was unveiled. The paint job made it look different to how it looked before restoration. The bridge was repainted to look more like how people remember it.

Japanese Bridge after restoration

Hoi An has strict restoration rules, so the old town remains looking like an old town. This causes problems for property owners, as renovating old houses according to historic specifications is more expensive compared to making ad hoc changes.

The most pressing issue for Hoi An is the annual floods that happen around this time of year. I was lucky with the weather, but there had been some flooding before I arrived.

The capital of Quang Nam province (Tam Ky) is planning to build flood defences. Meanwhile, Hoi An is resigning itself to the annual floods with a “Hoi An in flood season” tour.

Homeland Paradise Village

Proposed Homeland Paradise Village

The coast between Danang and Hoi An is being developed from either end, and most of the land in the Danang half of the beach has been reserved by developers. The Danang urban area spills over into Quang Nam, and the first project in Quang Nam is the Homeland Paradise Village project. According to Google Maps, this project is in Danang and Quang Nam, but is registered in Quang Nam. Homeland Paradise Village is next to the failed Cocobay project of Danang.

Homeland Paradise Village with Cocobay in the background.

Cocobay was a high-profile project that had big ambitions to become a leisure and entertainment hub of South Danang. Cocobay-branded buses were cruising around Danang to pick up passengers, and they even had advertising featuring Ronaldo.

Unfinished buildings at Homeland Paradise Village.

Homeland Paradise Village was being advertised as being located next to Cocobay, and they would have hoped that this was a good selling point. Cocobay went bust, and Homeland Paradise Village is now also abandoned.

This town is coming like a ghost town.

Homeland Paradise Village is named after the developer (Homeland), and it has the usual hallmarks of a Vietnamese urban development. There are out-of-context European statues and rows of identical shophouses.

A Homeland Paradise Village statue looking at the abandoned Cocobay buildings.

Homeland Paradise Village and Cocobay are not near any other urban area, so I don’t know how they justify building so many shophouses when there will never be enough foot traffic to sustain so many shops.

Dien Ban District (North Hoi An or South Danang)

Dien Ban District is the administrative area between Hoi An and Danang. There is no real town centre, and it’s not a recognised name, so resort projects attach Hoi An or Danang to their name to better promote themselves.

The Dien Ban coast is littered with half-finished hotels and resort projects, and the abandoned projects attract illegal rubbish dumping.

The local media have at least been covering the story of abandoned buildings and ghost towns.

Some hotels have now restarted construction, such as the Radisson Blu Hoi An.

Radisson Blu Hoi An

After years of construction, the Radisson Blu Hoi An was nearly finished, and it was advertising for workers.

Radisson Blu Hoi An recruitment day

Closer to Hoi An is La Queenara Hoi An, though it is technically not in Hoi An.

La Queenara Hoi An

I visited this project last year, and I was able to visit the streets. It is now closed off to visitors.

La Queenara Hoi An in 2024

This project includes things I don’t like about new urban areas (cookie-cutter buildings and unnecessarily odd street layouts).

The shophouses are also very tall, so climbing stairs between floors will be challenging.

There is another section of La Queenara that faces the beach. This site has been empty for years, but there were workers there when I visited who were landscaping the entrance. This section is next to the popular An Bang Beach area.

Hoi An City

Beyond the UNESCO Ancient Town, Hoi An is a regular provincial city in Vietnam. There are also beach resorts and new urban areas within the city.

Casamia is a new urban area within the Hoi An city boundary, so it can truthfully be called Hoi An. Casamia is built in a river estuary, so I wonder how it will cope when it floods (which is becoming a common occurrence in Hoi An).

Villas in Casamia.

Most of the villas are finished, but I only saw a few that were occupied.

I’ve noticed in these cookie-cutter developments that owners start modifying their houses, breaking up the sameness of the buildings.

Personal touches added to an identical villa

These villas look great on the outside, though the stairs would annoy me being in front of the windows.

There is a signature hotel inside the project, and the concrete shell has me curious as to how it will turn out. This will not be opening in 2024 as advertised.

Hotel Casamia is not coming in 2024

There are some beach resorts along the coast of Hoi An City, and one of the more unusual ones is Hoi An Gold Sea at An Bang Beach. The land for this project was cleared, and two hotel blocks were built. The project has since ground to a halt and has been stuck for a few years now.

Hoi An Gold Sea.

The project includes a castle-shaped concrete block on the beachfront. It sits there by itself, so when viewed from the beach, it looks like a haunted castle on a hill.

The castle of An Bang Beach

South of Hoi An

Nam Hoi An City

South of Hoi An is Nam Hoi An City (South Hoi An City). Once again, this is not in Hoi An, but they are using the strength of the Hoi An name to sell themselves.

The project is by a single developer, and there is a gated area to enter. I’m not sure if this is a temporary thing while it is under construction

This is another typical new urban area with rows of identical shophouses. Most of the houses are not quite finished, and there are only a few houses that are occupied.

Unfinished houses in Nam Hoi An City.

Something I have noticed about these developments is how badly designed the interiors are. The staircases are often built in inconvenient parts of the room.

Weird staircase design.

Nam Hoi An City has a great location on the river with a view of the Cua Dai Bridge.

This area would have been good if they had just laid out a street grid and let people build their own houses (like they did in Danang). They could have also accentuated the riverfront by having a promenade with cafes and restaurants on the riverfront.

Future Quang Nam

I keep an updated list of projects on the Future Hoi An / Quang Nam page. Hoi An and Danang are places I end up at least once a year, so I will be checking back on the progress of the ghost towns and abandoned hotels in the future.