Ministry of Construction: Some speculative and brokerage groups are causing information disturbance to inflate prices.

The Ministry of Construction has just sent Report No. 5333 to the Government Office on analyzing the cost structure, selling price and causes of real estate price increase, and proposing solutions.

According to the report, the Ministry of Construction pointed out a number of activities that affect real estate prices. Specifically, some real estate project investors take advantage of the limited supply situation to offer high selling prices, with expected profits higher than the average of real estate projects.

In particular, in some areas where there are only a few, or even just one, projects for sale while the demand and number of buyers are high, investors can raise the selling price due to lack of competition and reference price to make a profit.

In addition, the Ministry believes that some speculative groups, investors and individuals operating in real estate brokerage disrupt market information to "inflate prices", "create virtual prices"... and take advantage of people's lack of knowledge to manipulate psychology, attract investment following the crowd mentality for profit.

"Basically, investors of housing projects spend an average of about 3% of the selling price to pay the trading floor and brokers to sell the products. However, the trading floor and brokers often choose according to the market situation to add more price when transacting with customers.

Projects with few products that many customers are interested in often require buyers to pay more than the price in the contract signed with the investor, called the difference," the Ministry of Construction stated. This difference is not fixed but depends on the heat of the market, the project and the broker's agreement with the customer, which can be from 5%, or even 10-20%.

For example, a low-rise housing project in Hung Yen province, houses sold for about 7-8 billion VND/unit, customers had to pay an average difference of about 750 million VND, equivalent to 10%. But when the project cooled down, this difference also decreased to about 250 million VND, and many floors even accepted to sell without the difference.

An urban area in Hanoi (Photo: Duong Tam).

The ministry also said that real estate transactions in the secondary market are also pushed up in price due to brokerage and intermediary activities. Normally, the seller has to pay 1% of the selling price to the broker.

However, when the market is hot, brokers add a markup to trade with customers. For example, an apartment selling for about 5 billion VND, the broker can send a markup of about 200-300 million VND, equivalent to 5%. Or a townhouse priced at about 10 billion VND, the broker can send a markup of about 500 million VND, equivalent to 5% of the selling price.

The Ministry of Construction even said that during the hot period of the market, many brokers used the method of depositing to buy houses and land from sellers, then increasing the price by 10-15% and selling it to others. For example, an apartment costs 5 billion VND, the broker deposits 1 billion VND to buy and agrees to pay within 1 month. During this time, the broker will find customers to sell for a difference of 6-7 billion VND.

"The synthesis shows that these activities of some associations, groups of speculators, investors and individual real estate brokers are also part of the reason for the increase in real estate and residential land prices in recent times," the Ministry stated.

From there, the Ministry proposed to study and propose tax policies for cases of owning and using many houses and lands to limit speculative activities and the buying and selling of houses and lands in a short period of time to make a profit.

At the same time, the study proposed that competent authorities consider piloting the model of "Real estate and land use rights trading center managed by the State" to limit the situation where real estate trading floors and brokers can collude to disrupt the market.

The Ministry also proposed to strengthen inspection, supervision, and effective management of real estate service business activities, real estate trading floor services, brokerage services, etc.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/bat-dong-san/bo-xay-dung-mot-so-nhom-dau-co-moi-gioi-gay-nhieu-thong-tin-de-thoi-gia-20240925003728959.htm