Land prices are not close to reality
On August 20, in Hanoi, VietTimes Electronic Magazine in collaboration with the Institute of Strategy and Policy on Agriculture and Environment (Ministry of Agriculture and Environment) organized a Workshop on "Improving land laws to create development momentum in the digital age".
At the workshop, Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Dinh Tho - Deputy Director of the Institute of Strategy and Policy on Agriculture and Environment said that the 2024 Land Law has made great strides when it agreed on a number of regulations on auction, bidding and land allocation.
However, there are still many points that need to be further studied, especially the mechanism of "land development rights auction" that has been successfully applied by many countries.
According to him, currently, the law stipulates planning and land use plans at four levels (including national, provincial, district and commune levels), leading to complicated and rigid administrative procedures, causing difficulties for businesses and people.
In the process of amending the Land Law, the most important goal is to reduce procedures, increase flexibility, and ensure that people and businesses are more convenient in converting land use purposes.
Therefore, it is necessary to clearly distinguish between long-term planning (10-15 years) and specific, short-term land use plans, while maintaining a flexible adjustment mechanism to suit development practices.
Talking about land prices and compensation and site clearance, Mr. Nguyen Dinh Tho said that land prices according to the price list often have a large difference compared to market prices, leading to inadequacies in compensation calculation and investment attraction. This is one of the reasons for prolonged disputes and complaints.
The new Land Law needs to have a mechanism for determining land prices more transparently and realistically, while minimizing delays in compensation and site clearance.
According to Mr. Tho, the Ministry of Finance needs to determine a suitable coefficient to calculate the financial obligations of the people. This issue is of special significance, because in reality, there is a huge difference between market land prices and land prices within the State- regulated price framework.
For example, in 2011, the highest land price in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City was determined at 160 million VND/m2. However, by the time of the 2019 survey, the market price in Hoan Kiem district (Hanoi) had reached about 1.12 billion VND/m2, while in some central areas of Ho Chi Minh City, the price was about 1.18 billion VND/m2. At the same time, surveys in other areas also showed that actual land prices ranged from 780 million to 820 million VND/m2.
However, when issuing the land price framework in 2019, the Government considered many factors such as inflation, salary increase rate, per capita income and GDP, so it decided that the adjustment level should not exceed 20% compared to 2011.
Therefore, the maximum land price of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City is raised to about 192 million VND/m2. This figure is still 5-6 times lower than the actual market price.
The huge difference between land price and market price has directly affected people and businesses. In fact, in recent times, in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, many households have had difficulty converting land use purposes, because financial obligations calculated according to the land price list are too high. This also puts pressure on production and business costs, affecting livelihoods and the investment environment.
Mr. Tho said that special attention should be paid to land finance policies, ensuring that people's financial obligations are at a reasonable level, and at the same time, there should be a mechanism to support businesses.
Concerns about the digitalization of land data when there are still many plots of land without red books
Mr. Nguyen Bao Trung - Deputy Director of the Department of Digital Transformation and Information of Natural Resources and Environment Data shared his concerns about the digitalization of land data when there are still many plots of land without red books.
Mr. Nguyen Bao Trung affirmed that the red book is not an obstacle. A red book is just a type of legal document. Instead of waiting to have enough red books to digitize, the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment is proactively building a database from land origin.
"The construction of a land database does not depend entirely on whether there is a red book or not. Red books are a legal factor, and the State will proactively issue certificates to the people," Mr. Trung emphasized.
According to Mr. Trung, the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment is currently implementing the direction that people who are not eligible for a certificate can still register for land information.
The registered documents will be stored and processed, when they meet legal requirements, the State will issue certificates. This approach helps remove bottlenecks, speed up the digitalization and land management process more effectively, while ensuring the rights of the people.
