According to information from the Thanh Oai District Land Fund Development Center, as of September 16, only 13 plots of land in the auction of 68 plots of land in Ngo Ba area, Than village, Thanh Cao commune, Thanh Oai district (Hanoi) on August 10 had fulfilled their financial obligations.
The remaining 55 lots, including all lots with winning prices ranging from 80 million VND to over 100 million VND/m2, did not pay. Thus, the 55 lots that did not pay in full are understood to have forfeited their deposits.
According to regulations, the auction results must be canceled after 120 days, so the district still does not have a plan and deadline for re-auction.
Previously, on August 10, Thanh Oai district successfully organized an auction of 68 land plots in Ngo Ba area, Thanh Than village, Thanh Cao commune (Thanh Oai, Hanoi), with an area of 60-85m2 with starting prices from VND8.6 million/m2 to VND12.5 million/m2. The auction attracted 4,600 applications, 4,201 of which were qualified.
This auction caused many surprises when the winning price was many times higher than the starting price. Some plots of land were won at 100 million VND/m2, many times higher than the land price in this area.
Regarding the situation of winning land bids at high prices but not paying according to regulations in Thanh Oai, Mr. Nguyen Van Dinh - real estate legal expert - said that the time to pay land use fees after winning the auction is currently regulated in both the land law and the tax management law. That leads to overlapping regulations on the issue of the time limit for paying money after winning the auction and the applicable sanctions.
According to Article 18 of Decree No. 126/2020/ND-CP detailing the Law on Tax Administration, within 30 days from the date of notification of land use fee payment, land users must pay 50% of the land use fee according to the notification; within 90 days from the date of notification of land use fee payment, land users must pay 100% of the land use fee.
Mr. Dinh added that according to Clause 9, Article 55 of Decree No. 102/2024/ND-CP detailing the implementation of the 2024 Land Law, in case the auction winner does not pay or does not pay the full amount of the auction winning amount, after 120 days from the date of approval of the auction winning results. In this case, the auction winner will not receive the deposit back.
According to the principle of law application, Decree No. 102/2024/ND-CP was issued after Decree No. 126/2020/ND-CP, so it will take priority. Therefore, according to Decree No. 102/2024/ND-CP, it is only after 120 days from the date of approval of the auction results that the state agency can issue a decision to cancel the recognition of the auction results.
Mr. Nguyen Quoc Hiep - Chairman of the Vietnam Association of Construction Contractors - said that it is necessary to strengthen measures to limit the situation of pushing up prices and then abandoning deposits in auctions.
"Currently, the starting price is low, it is necessary to increase this price. For example, in the Thanh Oai area (Hanoi), if the average land price is around 30 - 40 million VND/m2, then the initial starting price of around 20 million VND/m2 would be reasonable. In addition, it is necessary to increase the deposit rate to around 50% and shorten the time to pay the winning bid. This will limit cases of blatant price inflation," said Mr. Hiep.
