Chaotic sale of apartments in Hanoi: One house but many prices

House price chaos

Recently, the selling price of apartments in Hanoi has been increasing rapidly. However, the information has made many home buyers even more confused when brokers adjust the selling price themselves. Accordingly, it is difficult to know the real price of the house.

An 89m2 apartment with 3 bedrooms in My Dinh area (Nam Tu Liem, Hanoi) is being offered for sale by many brokers at prices ranging from 4.3 to 4.37 billion VND. Thus, the difference between the highest and lowest advertised brokerage prices is 70 million VND/m2.

A broker named Huong in Hanoi said that the owner offered the apartment for 4.37 billion VND, but she lowered the price to 4.35 billion VND. However, if the buyer is willing, they can negotiate further to reduce the price by 50 to 100 million VND. Currently, the apartment has a red book "in the safe" just waiting for a new owner to transfer the name.

One apartment but advertised for sale at many different prices (screenshot).

Or Ms. Khanh Linh (Thanh Xuan, Hanoi) said that her family is looking to buy a 2-bedroom apartment. In early September, she saw a 79.4m2 apartment with 2 bedrooms in Thanh Xuan. The broker quoted the price of this apartment at 5.4 billion VND, equivalent to 68 million VND/m2.

However, just a few days later, another broker offered her the same apartment for 5.1 billion VND, 300 million VND lower than the previous broker's quote. "The more I researched, the more I felt like I was lost in a maze of apartment prices. So I hesitated to buy because I didn't know if the price of 5.1 billion VND was correct," said Ms. Linh.

Talking to Dan Tri reporter, Mr. Truong Giang - owner of a real estate brokerage in Hanoi - said that it is not uncommon for a house to be advertised for sale at many different prices in the market. The reason is that many brokers have pre-contracted with the homeowner on the price they will receive.

Brokers will advertise their own prices. They even increase the price so high that when negotiating, they will lower it, which will make buyers think that if they get a big discount, they will pay immediately. Therefore, home buyers at any time need to carefully check the price from reliable sources before paying.

Rectify rumor-spreading activities

The latest research data from the Vietnam Association of Realtors (VARS) shows that Vietnam has about 100,000 active brokers working officially at professional business organizations. Of these, only about 40,000 individuals participating in activities have real estate brokerage practice certificates.

An apartment building in Hanoi (Photo: Tran Khang).

Most brokers are freelancers, "amateurs", "side-jobs", untrained, without professional knowledge, operating spontaneously, not under the management of any agency.

They only care about how to make the transaction happen as quickly as possible, taking advantage of the opportunity to "inflate" real estate prices to make profits, hoard goods, defraud customers... causing market manipulation. The consequences cause a lot of instability in the real estate market, erode investor confidence, and damage the image of the legitimate brokerage force...

The Ministry of Construction said that recently, many localities across the country have proactively implemented legal regulations on real estate business, investment, land, housing... and have achieved certain results.

However, the development of the real estate market is not really sustainable, and there are still potential risks. The situation of organizations, individuals and businesses violating the law still occurs in some localities. Some investors and real estate brokers spread rumors, buy and sell real estate, and distort information to push up real estate prices for profit.

In particular, in Hanoi, there is a situation where the prices of apartments in some projects and individual houses in some areas such as Tay Ho, Hai Ba Trung, Ba Dinh, Hoai Duc... have increased abnormally compared to the market situation and people's needs.

The Ministry requested the People's Committees of provinces and centrally-run cities to focus on inspecting and reviewing real estate business activities of enterprises, investors, real estate trading floors, and real estate brokers in the locality. At the same time, the units should control the buying and selling of real estate that has been exchanged many times, especially in areas, projects, and apartment buildings with unusual price increases.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/bat-dong-san/bat-nhao-rao-ban-chung-cu-o-ha-noi-mot-can-nha-nhung-nhieu-gia-20240914220621189.htm