Draft land price list of Ho Chi Minh City 2026: People worry about not being able to afford land use fees

Recently, the Department of Agriculture and Environment of Ho Chi Minh City has sent a document to relevant units to get opinions on the draft Resolution of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Council regulating the first land price list applied from January 1, 2026 in Ho Chi Minh City. Commenting on this draft, experts said that the most important factor is that the input land database must be complete and objective; at the same time, it is necessary to consider the land use coefficient when applying land prices.

People and businesses face difficulties

According to the Department of Agriculture and Environment of Ho Chi Minh City, the 2026 land price list will overcome the limitations of the current land price list (Decision 79/2024). Accordingly, the land price on some central streets of Ho Chi Minh City in the draft is almost the same as the old land price list and is only 60% of the actual transfer price.

However, according to the draft Resolution on removing difficulties and obstacles in implementing the 2024 Land Law being considered by the National Assembly, land prices are determined by multiplying the price list by the adjustment coefficient (K coefficient) applied to all cases. In which, the K coefficient increases from 1.5 to 2 times compared to the price list of non- agricultural land; increases from 1.5 to 10 times for agricultural land.

Therefore, this new draft land price list has made people and businesses worry about not being able to pay for financial obligations when changing land use purposes, land rent, etc.

A residential area in Binh Hung commune, Ho Chi Minh City

Mr. NK (Phu Hoa Dong commune, Ho Chi Minh City) said that he is waiting for Ho Chi Minh City to issue a new land price list with the hope that the land use fee will be reduced when changing the land use purpose. Mr. K. said that at the end of October 2024, when he heard that Ho Chi Minh City would issue a land price list according to Decision 79, he submitted an application to convert nearly 960 square meters of agricultural land to residential land.

However, after 2 months of waiting, he received a notice to pay land use fees, applying the land price list according to Decision 79, with an amount of more than 4.3 billion VND. “Because we cannot pay more than 4.3 billion VND, my family had to give up the idea of ​​changing the purpose to residential land and wait for the new land price list. However, with this new draft land price list, the land use fees could double. How can we afford such a high amount?”, Mr. K. shared.

From a business perspective, Mr. Tran Van Chau, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Cho Lon Real Estate Joint Stock Company, analyzed that the draft land price list issued in 2026, except for the central area, is mostly quite high. For businesses, if land prices increase too high, it will limit many aspects, especially investors will leave the market.

Therefore, to move towards transparent and fair market prices, it is necessary to have a land database and supervision by independent units, openly receiving opinions from people, businesses and specialized agencies.

Pressure from land prices and K coefficient

Talking to SGGP Newspaper reporter, Mr. Dao Quang Duong, Acting Head of the Land Economics Department, Department of Agriculture and Environment of Ho Chi Minh City, acknowledged that if land prices are applied according to the draft Resolution, all cases from resettlement arrangement; changing land use purpose from agricultural land to residential land of households and individuals; land lease with annual land rent payment... must pay 1.5-2 times more land use fees according to coefficient K.

According to Mr. Duong, in case the National Assembly passes a draft resolution with the content of land price equal to land price table multiplied by coefficient K, it is recommended that localities issue coefficient K no later than December 31, 2026. This will help provinces and cities have time to prepare for the construction of coefficient K.

For the remaining cases such as land allocation, land use purpose conversion, land lease with one-time payment for the entire lease term, and compensation calculation when the State reclaims land, the Government shall stipulate special cases; for projects with development potential, methods shall be applied to determine specific land prices.

This ensures that the process of determining land prices is shortened, and the payment of land use fees is consistent with the costs incurred by businesses to develop projects, leading to real estate prices not being pushed up.

Agreeing on this issue, Mr. Le Hoang Chau, Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Real Estate Association, proposed that the K coefficient applied for 2026 should be set at 1, meaning no increase or decrease. This helps localities avoid confusion when implementing the National Assembly's resolution. After 2027, the K coefficient can be adjusted up or down depending on the market situation.

Meanwhile, Dr. Pham Viet Thuan, Director of the Institute of Natural Resources and Environment Economics of Ho Chi Minh City, said that the city needs to have a direction to build a land price list based on the price list applied before the 2024 Land Law takes effect multiplied by the coefficient K with an adjustment range of 0.2 to 3 times when adjusting the coefficient K to apply to the new residential land price list in 2026.

* Mr. DAO QUANG DUONG , Acting Head of Land Economics Department, Department of Agriculture and Environment of Ho Chi Minh City

Will pay land use fee according to conditions when changing purpose

When applying the land price list according to Decision 79, it is basically suitable for practice, especially for land for production, business, trade and services. However, there are also some opinions from people in previous areas such as Binh Chanh, Cu Chi, Hoc Mon, Nha Be, Can Gio reflecting that the land use fee when converting from agricultural land to residential land is quite high compared to before.

To solve this problem, the Department of Agriculture and Environment (previously) advised the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee to report to the Prime Minister to issue regulations guiding the implementation of Clause 2, Article 157 of the 2024 Land Law on exemption and reduction of land use fees for other cases. Currently, these recommendations have been submitted by the Government to the National Assembly to pass a resolution to remove difficulties and obstacles in implementing the 2024 Land Law.

If the resolution is passed as proposed, households and individuals who change the purpose of land from agricultural land to residential land will pay a reasonable land use fee, suitable to the economic conditions and income of the people.

For the Binh Duong area (formerly), there were adjustments but only 34 resettlement projects were adjusted, the rest remained the same as before. With these 34 resettlement areas being appraised close to market prices. For the Vung Tau area (formerly), adjustments were also made by taking the 2019 land price list and multiplying it by the 2023 land price adjustment coefficient. Accordingly, land prices in this area also increased but not significantly.

THANH HIEN

Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/du-thao-bang-gia-dat-tphcm-2026-nguoi-dan-lo-khong-kham-noi-tien-su-dung-dat-post826795.html