PM orders tax study to crack down on real estate speculation
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh on January 15 signed Official Dispatch No. 03/CD-TTg, urging ministries and local authorities to address real estate price manipulation, speculation, and to inspect and audit real estate investment projects.
According to the dispatch, in 2024, real estate prices in certain areas and at specific times surged beyond the financial capacity of the populace. This was partly due to syndicates, speculative groups, investors, and individual real estate brokers exploiting the public’s lack of understanding and herd mentality to manipulate psychology, “push prices up”, and “create fake prices”, causing market information disorder for illicit profit.
Additionally, the lack of transparent and timely information about the real estate market, coupled with a limited supply of housing and real estate, especially commercial housing, exacerbated the issue.
To strengthen control and timely handling of real estate manipulation, price inflation, and speculation, the Prime Minister requested relevant ministries and sectors to study and propose a pilot scheme for a “State-managed Real Estate and Land Use Rights Transaction Center.” This center will focus on electronic transactions to improve management efficiency, transparency, and openness.
Furthermore, the Ministry of Construction was tasked with completing the national database on housing and the real estate market, connecting it with other national data systems (population, land, investment, notary public…), ensuring the updating of legal information on projects, real estate eligible for business, inventory, and completed transactions in 2025.
The ministry is also to study the application of the stock exchange model, promote digital transformation, and interlink real estate transaction procedures (notarization, taxes, land registration) in an electronic environment, ensuring transparency, preventing tax evasion, and reporting to the Prime Minister before June 30, 2025.
The PM also requested the Minister of Finance to study and propose tax policies to limit real estate speculation, ensuring compatibility with Vietnam’s socio-economic conditions and international practices. This includes studying the option of taxing the price difference between the land use fee calculation price and the selling price of real estate products of projects, with a report to be submitted to the Government before April 30.