Brokers collude and push up prices
Wanting to buy a villa or townhouse in the West of Hanoi, Ms. Thuy Hong (39 years old, in Cau Giay District, Hanoi) was continuously offered by real estate brokers to sell at a loss. At the end of August, Ms. Hong was offered a 240 m2 villa in the Geleximco New Urban Area project (Le Trong Tan Street, Hoai Duc District) by a broker for 16.5 billion VND. Later, when she decided on the price and planned to make a deposit, the broker informed her that the owner was not in a hurry to sell, and if she wanted to buy, she had to pay a higher price.
Villa in Geleximco urban area
Nearly a month later, Ms. Hong still read information about the sale of the same villa on many real estate classifieds platforms. "The selling price was quite chaotic, one place was 17 billion VND, another was 17.5 billion VND, but all were higher than the price I agreed to buy," Ms. Hong said.
Through investigation, Ms. Hong learned that it was the group of brokers who "held" the above villa, and she was used as a "measure" of demand. Meanwhile, some brokers also admitted that they had fallen into the situation of "greed leads to disaster" when they paid money to "hold" the villa but were "stuck" with the goods.
Mr. Hoang Ngoc Phuong (35 years old), a real estate broker who is being held responsible for selling a townhouse in the Nam An Khanh Urban Area project (Hoai Duc District), said he had just received a painful lesson, a lesson that he had to learn from the above trick.
Specifically, last June, someone advertised a 210 m2 townhouse for sale for 18.5 billion VND and 3-4 interested customers. Someone offered up to 18 billion VND, so Mr. Phuong's group thought the market was starting to warm up.
Townhouses at Nam An Khanh Urban Area project
"We pooled money to buy that house for 18.1 billion VND and then put it up for sale for 19.5 billion VND. But we haven't been able to sell it for the past few months. Some people in the group had to borrow money to pool the capital, so they're struggling to pay the interest. After investigating, we found out that the customer who offered 18 billion VND was a relative of the homeowner. They tricked us into buying it back to "get rid" of the property. Now we want to sell it for 17.8 billion VND but no one is asking," said Mr. Phuong.
Warm market in the "stork's mouth"?
In fact, the real estate market for villas and townhouses seems to be warming up only at the "broker's mouth". Recently, the stock market has had a sharp correction when the State Bank withdrew money and foreign exchange rates increased. Seeing an opportunity to buy stocks at the bottom, Mr. Bui Van Truong (39 years old, in Thanh Xuan District, Hanoi) quickly put up for sale his townhouse in the Hinode Royal Park project (Hoai Duc District, Hanoi) for 8 billion VND.
Hinode Royal Park project is located on Highway 32 in Hoai Duc District with a large number of townhouses.
"I have been posting for more than 2 weeks without any buyers. Real estate brokers are constantly urging to reduce the selling price to below 7 billion VND to find buyers. If you just browse online, it will be very difficult to know which is the real price and which is the fake price. Only when you have real estate to sell can you clearly feel how difficult the market is," said Mr. Truong, frustrated.
According to a survey by Thanh Nien , many banks are also taking steps to lower interest rates for personal loans and consumer loans. Some banks are applying interest rates below 8%/year for some personal loans. However, lending conditions have not been loosened.
For example, a real estate loan at a state-owned joint-stock commercial bank is advertised at an interest rate of 8% per year. After the grace period, the borrower will be charged a new interest rate: the base interest rate plus a margin of 3.5 - 4% per year, so the lending interest rate exceeds 10% per year. In addition, banks are still tightening conditions and procedures for customers.
Customers buying villas and townhouses in some urban projects in the West of Hanoi need to be wary of tricks of real estate brokers.
Mr. Nguyen Van Dinh, Chairman of the Vietnam Real Estate Brokers Association, said that the market has not shown many signs of warming up. In the secondary market, with the majority of buyers having real housing needs, it is very difficult to create a "fever" in the current context.
According to Mr. Dinh, real estate still has difficulties in terms of law, finance, and bonds, so some brokers still spread rumors to cause confusion and disrupt the market for profit. Management agencies and functional forces in localities need to have strict control measures.
In the long term, to help people with real housing needs easily access housing, the State needs to boost new supply to the market, especially social housing to create liquidity. Through that, it will both warm up the real estate market, contribute to economic recovery, and establish a lower price level than the current one.
Source link
Comment (0)