UPDATE 1-CapitaLand, Citi set up Vietnam property fund

(Updates with details and quotes, changes dateline to Hanoi)

HANOI, Feb 27 (Reuters) - Singapore's CapitaLand, Southeast Asia's largest property developer, said it was setting up a $300 million property fund in Vietnam and forging a partnership with a Vietnamese firm to seek investment opportunities in the country.

CapitaLand (CATL.SI), with a market capitalisation of $13 billion, said it wants to develop residential properties and commercial and residential mixed developments in Vietnam.

It is setting up the fund with Citi Private Bank, part of Citigroup (C.N), and will take a 30 percent stake in the fund.

"Many clients are interested in investing in real estate as an asset class and interested in gaining exposure to Vietnam," Jerome Gates, managing director of global investment real estate, Citi Global Wealth management, told a news conference.

Executives of CapitaLand also signed an agreement in Hanoi with the Nam Thang Long Investment Joint-Stock Company.

With Vietnam's economy growing at more than 8 percent a year, real estate is booming in the underdeveloped Southeast Asian country. Industry experts forecast property growth of between 20 and 30 percent this year.

CapitaLand has developed The Vista, a high-end apartment complex in Ho Chi Minh City that sold out last summer before it was built, at prices ranging from $1,350 per sq metre to $2,700 per sq metre.

The company has built other serviced residential complexes in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi.

CapitaLand Group CEO Liew Mun Leong told reporters the firm wanted to double the number of houses it develops in Vietnam to 6,000 in the next three years from 2,800 homes currently.

Liew said that although there was a global financial credit crisis, "we can continue to help Vietnam to develop and grow." (Reporting by Grant McCool; Editing by Valerie Lee)