The trick of "herding chickens" to buy land plots is flourishing again.

Reports from real estate research companies show that demand for real estate has increased sharply since before Tet.

Increased demand

Mr. Phan Sang, a real estate broker in Lam Dong , said that before Tet, several customers texted him to find garden land with a nice "view", an area of ​​1,000-2,000 m2, with a red book in which part of the land is recognized, at a reasonable price, around 1.5-1.8 billion VND. He found a 1,300 m2 plot of land, with 100 m2 of residential land, priced at 1.65 billion VND in Lam Ha district, Lam Dong province. The customer was very satisfied and was preparing to make a deposit.

According to Mr. Sang, the demand for buying garden and residential land in the province has increased but only at the exploratory level, with very few transactions. They are mainly interested in real estate that is sharply discounted by 20%-30% compared to last year.

In Ho Chi Minh City, many people have also started to "hunt" and deposit many affordable plots of land to invest or build houses. Mr. Truong Chung - a real estate broker in Thu Duc City, District 12, Hoc Mon and Cu Chi districts - said that in the context of real estate fluctuations, land prices have not decreased much and have now "started" to trade again.

"For example, a plot of land in Hiep Binh Phuoc ward, Thu Duc city, with an area of ​​80 square meters (4 meters wide, 20 meters long), car alley, has just been paid a deposit of 4.6 billion VND by a customer. However, only in Thu Duc city and concentrated in Phu Huu, Tang Nhon Phu A, Tang Nhon Phu B wards, land in car alley with prices ranging from 3-4 billion VND (area 60-70 square meters) has received much attention, not all areas have transactions" - Mr. Chung said.

Mr. Tran Khanh Quang, a personal real estate expert, said that normally after an economic cycle, the recovery starts with stocks, then real estate. Therefore, when stocks are rising strongly and many investors are taking profits, real estate is where the cash flow takes shelter. In particular, land is the most attractive segment, followed by other segments.

Brokers gather customers at a coffee shop on Song Hanh Street, Ho Chi Minh City to "entice" them to see land in Dong Nai. Photo: PHAM DINH

Old tricks replay

Also due to the recent increase in demand for real estate for investment and savings, real estate business tricks such as "hanging a goat's head but selling dog meat" and "herding chickens" to buy land in the province have also appeared more.

Last week, the reporter recorded an advertisement for a bank to liquidate an apartment in District 4 at a surprisingly low price on a real estate website and contacted the poster, who introduced a lot of attractive information about the project, the apartment and the sales policy. This person then continuously texted and called us to come to an address on Song Hanh Street, Thu Duc City to see the legal status of the apartment and do the procedures.

However, when we arrived, we and many others saw that this was just a coffee shop. Some people claiming to be brokers invited customers to see the project in another place, not as initially advertised. Customers who agreed would be taken by car to Trang Bom, Dong Nai to see and buy the project land. Those who were skeptical or did not agree to go would be rescheduled to come see the apartment's legal documents on another day.

Previously, also in the role of someone who wanted to learn about buying land, we found an advertisement posted on Zalo about a land project for just over 2 billion VND/plot right on the frontage of Tran Quoc Thao Street (District 3, Ho Chi Minh City). When we contacted, we were invited to the conference room in the premises of Hoa Binh Tourism Company (Vo Van Tan Street, District 3, Ho Chi Minh City) to hear an introduction about the project.

Here, many staff surrounded us and other customers to introduce the project named Tran Quoc Thao Residential Area with 32 plots, of which 8 frontage houses, priced at 7-9 billion VND; and the internal houses priced from 2.7 billion VND and up. The investor is Thien Nam House Joint Stock Company. However, when we expressed our desire to see the land, the staff said that this project is a commercial service house, with only 11 years left until its expiration date.

Hearing that, we were about to back out when the staff immediately introduced us to another project on the side of National Highway 13, very close to Thu Duc wholesale market, called Smart City, invested by Dai Hung Vuong Company. The project has up to 700 plots, each plot area is from 70-120 m2 and has full infrastructure and utilities. This person told us and some other customers to get in the car to go see the project soon.

Seeing that we were not interested, the staff continued to introduce a special promotion program: deposit 100 million VND to buy land and the company will immediately give us some gold bars. An elderly female customer heard that and immediately showed interest, wanting to go see it right away to invest.

When we refused, both the staff and the woman left, not as friendly as before.

Need to be very alert

Talking to us, lawyer Tran Dinh Dung, Ho Chi Minh City Bar Association, said that the tricks of "herding chickens", taking them to buy land in the province, land in "ghost" projects used to be very common before the COVID-19 outbreak, like the Alibaba case. Last year, this situation recurred and a few cases were severely handled by Dong Nai Provincial Police, so after that, few businesses dared to bring customers to Dong Nai.

Up to now, when the real estate market has begun to show positive signs, the above situation has also recurred more often. People who want to buy real estate need to be very alert, should not be greedy for cheap land, promotions, gifts of gold and listen to the enticement to sign a contract or transfer a deposit. When encountering this situation, it is necessary to report to the police.

Source: https://nld.com.vn/chieu-tro-lua-ga-mua-dat-nen-lai-no-ro-196240320203920453.htm