On the afternoon of September 16, a representative of the Thanh Oai District Land Fund Development Center (Hanoi) said that the deadline for paying for the auction of 68 land plots in Ngo Ba area, Thanh Than village, Thanh Cao commune has now expired, but only 13 plots have paid in full.
According to this officer, among the lots that have paid in full, the highest lot costs more than 55 million VND/m2. The remaining 55 lots, including the person who won the lot with the highest price of nearly 100.5 million VND/m2, did not pay. Thus, the 55 lots that have not paid in full are understood to have forfeited their deposits.
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, 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, but only 4,201 qualified applications from 1,545 people.
Notably, at the end of the auction, the corner lot with the highest winning price was nearly 100.5 million VND/m2, 8 times higher than the starting price. The regular lots had winning prices of 63-80 million VND/m2, 5 to 6.4 times higher than the starting price.
The recent land auctions in the suburbs of Hanoi have somewhat raised public suspicions about the irregularities when many plots of land were auctioned at very high prices, over 100 million VND/m2. It is worth mentioning that after winning the auction, even though the prescribed time had passed, many winning bidders did not come to pay the auction fee and agreed to forfeit their deposits.
Sharing with reporters, Dr. Tran Xuan Luong - Deputy Director of the Institute of Research and Evaluation of Vietnam Real Estate Market - said that real estate speculators often use many sophisticated tricks to profit from the land market.
According to Dr. Luong, before the official auctions take place, these groups often quietly buy plots of land in neighboring areas at low prices. Then, when the auctions take place, they push up the prices of the new plots, creating a price-increasing mentality for the entire area. When the land prices are pushed to the highest level, they resell the plots of land they had previously invested in at high prices, earning huge profits.
The consequences of uncontrolled land auctions are very serious, distorting the market and possibly causing many consequences for the economy and society.
To prevent uncontrolled land auctions, Dr. Tran Xuan Luong said, it is necessary to closely manage and monitor the auction process; reform tax policies; synchronous planning and development; carefully review documents; and perfect the land information system.
