From the articles reflecting Lao Dong newspaper on social housing profiteering tricks, it shows a very painful situation. It is worth mentioning that "brokers" have guided buyers, causing many people to face the risk of losing money without having a house to live in.
Regarding this issue, Lao Dong Newspaper had an interview with Mr. Le Quang Huy - Deputy General Director of BIC Vietnam Joint Stock Company, investor of Him Lam Thuong Thanh social housing project (Rice City Long Chau).
Not allowed to authorize or link with any company or enterprise to sell social housing
Sir, there is currently a situation where some subjects are selling "diplomatic" social housing, including the Rice City Long Chau project invested by BIC Vietnam in a joint venture with Him Lam Capital Joint Stock Company. How do you evaluate this situation?
- Mr. Le Quang Huy: In the field of social housing, just as a project has information, even before the opening stage, only information about investment policies, land allocation or construction permit issuance... is the situation of immediately emerging buying or selling quotas. Every project meets this situation!
The reason is also understandable. Social housing, if compared in price at the present time, is only about 30-40% compared to commercial apartments in the same location, with the same level of completion. It is this huge difference in value that leads to a very high demand from people, including those who really want to buy and those who are looking to "stand up for the household name" and "make a household registration". This phenomenon has always existed outside of society.
For our projects, this is actually an issue that we have faced in all social housing projects we have implemented. Because the supply is too small, while the demand of people for the affordable social housing segment is extremely large.
As for the Rice City Long Chau project, with its beautiful location, well-invested overall planning, meticulous design and full legal documents approved by departments and branches, the level of interest is especially high.
Up to now, our online application receipt and guidance system has recorded more than 16,000 issued customer codes. Each code corresponds to a single set of personal information including citizen identification card, phone number and email. We completely eliminate the possibility of overlapping or creating multiple codes from the same information. Therefore, it can be confirmed that this 16,000 code is of real 16,000 users, not a fake account.
Meanwhile, the total number of apartments in the project is only 1,951 for sale and lease-purchase. The such high interest rate reflects the very high attraction of the project and also shows why spontaneous brokers take advantage of it to inflate news about diplomatic rates and difference buying prices.
In a series of investigative articles by Lao Dong Newspaper reflecting that brokers of TGT Vietnam Real Estate Joint Stock Company (TGT Land) advertised for 200 "diplomatic" social housing units of Him Lam Thuong Thanh (Rice City Long Chau). So, does the investor cooperate with this enterprise to sell the house, sir?
- Mr. Le Quang Huy: We do not know and are not affiliated with TGT Vietnam Real Estate Joint Stock Company. For the social housing development sector, according to the provisions of law, investors must do business directly.
Therefore, we do not have the need and are not allowed to connect with any trading floor, organization or individual to distribute and sell goods. The legal regulation clearly states that "the business of social housing must be directly carried out by the investor".
Therefore, for any project, when unusual information appears such as subjects selling diplomatic quotas, we issue an official notice on the website or press release, affirming that we are not affiliated with any exchange or organization or individual.
Does that mean that investors are not allowed to link or authorize subsidiaries, or companies in their ecosystems to sell goods?
- Mr. Le Quang Huy: According to the law, investors are only allowed to sell social housing, without authorization and are not allowed to sign a service contract with any company, including a subsidiary or a company in the ecosystem.
We ourselves, in the process of social housing business, realize that if it is not us - the ones who directly develop the project, from site clearance to investment preparation, it will be very difficult to ensure full compliance with legal regulations.
Because social housing business is closely linked to legal regulations. All regulations are very strict, from the step of collecting documents, approving validity, drawing lots, post-inspection, handover, to monthly post-inspection of the user: whether the subject is correct or not, buying them for sale or re-leasing them.
For other investors, I dare not confirm whether they will take the initiative to do that or not? But from our BIC perspective, the investor never dares to do that. Doing so will lead to immediate " discomfort". And from such a small incident, there will be many other problems, with huge consequences. This is an act of taking advantage of policies, which must be condemned and strictly handled.
The core value of BIC Vietnam is to specialize in developing low-cost housing projects, especially social housing. We have been operating in this field since 2013, with more than ten years in the market. We understand very well the principles and the level of legal regulations.
Regarding the issue of cooperation with platforms, units in the ecosystem or service consulting units, we do not need it. Because really, no unit has enough qualifications and knowledge of social housing laws to be able to organize it like us.
For example, with commercial housing projects, investors may just need money, know a little about legality and if they do not know much, they can rent it to do legal work. But for social housing, the investor must be the one who understands most carefully to organize all work. Why? Because our profit is only 10% of the total investment of the project. The profit is very small. So if everything is rented out and costs cannot be reduced, we will not have enough profits and revenue to maintain and develop the company.
People who want to buy social housing when accessing information must come from official sources
During the process, we recorded that because investors are only entitled to 10% of profits, there are "diplomatic households", so investors can push them to another unit to collect more. So, please tell me, where did the concept of "diplomatic property" come from?
- Mr. Le Quang Huy: That concept, you can understand, comes from the way of looking at society when there is still the viewpoint of "first relationship, second currency". In Vietnamese society, many people see the problem in such a rather Biased way, so it is easy to see negative factors everywhere.
However, in reality, in the type of social housing, due to the large difference in value compared to other types of housing, in the past, when social housing was not of interest to many people and was not closely supervised by the authorities, there were projects or investors who handled it in many different ways, and were later discovered.
But for BIC Vietnam, especially in the Rice City Long Chau project, if used in a somewhat straightforward expression, it is very "green". In diplomacy, we agree that there are still people calling like that, but our point of view is that everyone is treated like that, and treated equally.
Our process is to guide people to complete their documents. All those who are granted the code can download the sample documents on the website and are instructed to declare on that platform; if there are questions via email, we will answer them all.
For subjects with negative behaviors such as job searching, selling, collecting a large sum of money, buying and selling "diplomatic goods"... as investors, do you have any recommendations for the authorities to thoroughly handle this situation, so that people do not fall into fraud tricks?
- Mr. Le Quang Huy: Currently, the era of strong development of information technology, typical cases of being scammed have also appeared a lot. Therefore, first of all, it is necessary to advise the people. When accessing information, people must access it from official sources. At the same time, it is necessary to absolutely not trust any pimp in guiding the completion of the dossier.
The compensation corps operate at each level. At first, they instruct people to go to a certain website or Fanpage. The next level is to allow downloading documents, for example, each download is 100,000 VND.
Then, when people download it but do not know how to declare, they will continue to guide the declaration at a higher cost, for example, 500,000 VND. I know that there are people who provide such services. Of course, that activity did not violate the law.
Next, when there are documents in the application that require applying at agencies that people are not familiar with the procedures, people ask them to work as households, and another fee. At a higher level, the subjects began to use the concept of "diplomatic property" and use information to "prey" them, with the purpose of approaching and attracting people in need.
For example, they can declare that "I have a diplomatic position", "I have a relationship with the investor", "I have a diplomatic house". In case the buyer is in urgent need of housing and really wants to get an apartment, they are easily affected and trusted. When they trust them, they can transfer 300 or 500 million VND. Some people who are too confident transfer a large amount of money; others who are more cautious deposit in advance. Then, step by step, they are required to pay additional disbursements.
Even in the case of lucky buyers who are allowed to buy a house, it is not certain that the approval will involve those who have received that difference; but in fact, people will win the rate using their valid documents.
On the contrary, if they cannot buy, the scammer will give reasons such as: "This time the authorities are monitoring very closely", "at most, investors have to withdraw to handle other high-level cases"... At the same time, they will say: "I have transferred 300 million, I will return it, but need to deduct the consultation fee", usually 20 million or even 50 million. This is how they take advantage.
Thank you!
