Coastal village in the "vortex" of the land

(QBĐT) - After FLC Group started construction of the FLC Quang Binh resort complex (FLC Quang Binh project), land prices in the coastal commune of Hai Ninh (Quang Ninh) have been constantly "escalating". It is worth mentioning that many people here have been caught up in the "vortex" of land market speculation, and now have become "debtors", with amounts up to billions of dong.

The land fever of previous years has pushed many people in Hai Ninh commune ( Quang Ninh ) into bankruptcy, forced to "leave home to make a living" and avoid debt. That is the result of the situation where everyone trades in land, everyone works as a "land broker" and people without money also borrow from banks to trade in land.

"Drunk" because of super profits

These days, the fishermen of Hai Ninh commune have a good fishing season, so the atmosphere is bustling with buyers and sellers, on the wharf and under the boats, from early morning to late evening. "The rhythm of life in the fishing village here has become bustling again," said Mr. T., a fisherman who was preparing his boat for a new fishing trip. Seeing his strange tone, I asked: "Why is it bustling again?" He answered curtly: "Because in the past, many people left the sea to trade land to make a profit. But there was no profit, only debt."

The story happened in 2021-2022. In Hai Ninh commune, a movement of people working as "land brokers" arose, every family traded land. The value of land "escalated" in days and hours, not years and months. People bought land, people gathered land busily. This poor coastal village had never been so crowded and bustling.

Many people in Hai Ninh commune went bankrupt and broke their families because of "land hoarding" (photo for illustration purposes only).

People from all over the world flocked here to buy land. The people of the coastal village, who were simple and honest, and spent their days at sea, quickly integrated and caught up with the trend to trade land. “It’s not quite right to say that we integrated, but we got caught up in its vortex,” said Mr. T., and he himself was the same.

In 2021, by chance, he met someone who had a piece of land in the resettlement planning area in the commune and wanted to resell it, so he immediately agreed on a purchase price of more than 500 million VND (the original price was nearly 300 million VND). At this time, land prices in the area showed signs of "heating up". In 2022, the land he had just bought was priced at 1.2 billion VND. That was such a bargain. In just over a year, earning nearly 700 million VND was truly a dream. That was also the year when land prices in Hai Ninh commune increased rapidly. The "too huge" profit and the money was so easy to get, who wouldn't be "drunk with blood", he once thought.

Soon after, he and a younger brother "pooled capital" to buy 2 plots of land right next to the FLC project area, at a price of 1.8 billion VND/plot. At that time, land in this area was called "golden land". The day before, he had just put down a "deposit" of 300 million VND, 3 days later someone offered 2.8 billion VND. According to his analysis, the land price would "climb" higher, so selling quickly would mean losing a lot of money. He planned to wait until the fifth day to sell, but on the fourth day, news came that the Chairman of the Board of Directors of FLC Group Corporation, Trinh Van Quyet, was arrested. So the land price "turned around" and dropped. Luckily, he managed to sell before the price dropped. "I woke up early and didn't hold too much land, but I still owe a little."

To lighten the debt burden, many people in Hai Ninh commune returned to the sea.

He then looked towards the grand construction of the FLC project, where there were rows of buildings jutting out in front of the sea, and sadly said: "Avoiding the watermelon rind, meeting the coconut shell". When the project was in full swing, he also contributed capital to take on the construction contract for a number of projects, but "worked but had no food". He has not received any money from the construction for several months, while it was all borrowed money from the bank. Now, along with the debt for buying land, he is carrying a debt of more than 3 billion VND, with monthly interest payments of nearly 30 million VND. After more than a year of abandoning the sea, following the land, following the construction contractor, now he is forced to return to the sea, hoping that the sea will "take care" of his family and lighten the burden of the billion-VND debt he is incurring.

Borrow money from the bank to lend "hot money"

In that "vortex", Cua Thon, Hai Ninh commune (Quang Ninh) is the locality with the most people burdened with debt. Head of Cua Thon village Mai Thanh Phuong said that since the FLC project started, the land market in the locality has become bustling. People from other localities have flocked to buy land, pushing land prices from tens of millions of dong to billions of dong per plot. The movement of dividing land and "collecting land" to sell for profit has also emerged since then. Even vegetable sellers borrow money to trade land. There are many cases of mortgaging houses and land to borrow money from banks to lend to others for "hot loans" and participate in "land surfing".

Chief Justice of the People's Court of Quang Ninh District Nguyen Thi Nhan said that in Hai Ninh Commune alone, from 2020 to March 2024, the unit has handled 51 civil cases and 7 criminal cases. The civil cases are all related to land disputes, deposit contract disputes, and banks suing to collect overdue debts. Notably, the loans took place between 2020 and 2022 and all owed large amounts of money, from hundreds of millions to billions of dong.

Worryingly, in Cua Thon, nearly 80% of households are currently in debt to banks because of land "surfing" and about 30% of them are currently "debtors" to banks, with the amount up to billions of dong. Since 2023, when the FLC project is no longer under construction, land prices have started to fall, and there are no longer as many buyers and sellers as before. Those who accidentally "hold land" and cannot sell it will naturally also hold a pile of debt.

“The village and commune know about it, but how can we stop them? We have warned them in many village meetings, but the attraction of the super profit from the land makes it impossible for them to “turn a blind eye,” Mr. Mai Thanh Phuong added.

Secretary of the Hai Ninh Commune Party Committee Hoang Minh Le said: “Currently, the local government does not know how many cases of debt default are due to “land holding” and “land brokering”. In previous years, it was rare to have cases of property being auctioned due to bank debt. But now, many people have had their property auctioned to enforce judgments and there will probably be more in the future. The current issue is to encourage people to go offshore, actively work in production and export labor for a limited period abroad”.

Duong Cong Hop

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