The agricultural land market segment has always been sought after by real estate investors in the past, because the selling price is much lower than that of residential land.Normally, after buying, people will apply to convert to residential land to build houses, while businesses or investors can divide the land into plots and sell them for profit.
However, according to the latest decision of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee, from October 21, 2024, investors of new real estate projects and new housing construction projects in the city are not allowed to transfer land use rights in real estate projects with technical infrastructure and housing construction investment projects to organizations and individuals who build their own houses.In addition, since the information that Ho Chi Minh City applied new land prices, this segment has almost frozen.
Ms. Phuong Thao, an investor in Ho Chi Minh City, said that in 2020, in order to take advantage of the opportunity for Cu Chi district to become a city, she bought some agricultural land plots in the district and planned to divide them into plots for sale.In the past, she had not yet completed the conversion of land use purposes, but now the new land price list has increased, causing financial obligations to skyrocket, especially the recent decision of Ho Chi Minh City to ban the division and sale of land plots throughout the area, causing the original plan to fail.
Now she is forced to proceed with the plan to sell agricultural land to recover the invested cash flow, but even though she has lowered the selling price close to the original cost, it is still difficult to find buyers.
Mr. Hoang Khiem, an employee specializing in buying and selling agricultural land in Hoc Mon, also shared that since the information about Ho Chi Minh City banning the division and sale of land plots throughout the area, transactions have almost stopped.
"Currently, many agricultural land plots in Binh Chanh, Hoc Mon, Cu Chi districts...are being offered for sale at prices that are 20-30% lower than before compared to the peak.However, the general situation is that people who want to buy to build houses, or even investors, are very cautious during this period when the cost of converting to residential land is much higher than before," said Mr. Khiem.
According to data reported by the Vietnam Association of Realtors (VARS), the market is currently recording a trend of agricultural land plots decreasing in price by about 10-20% compared to before, due to the increased cost of converting to residential land.Along with the regulation prohibiting the subdivision and sale of land plots in districts on the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City, the number of agricultural land transactions is expected to decrease in the short term due to reduced supply and individual investors waiting for the market to stabilize.
