Increase affordable housing supply, impose anti-speculation tax on real estate

These are two solutions to bring the current imbalance in supply and demand of the real estate market back to health and development in the coming time.

New supply in the Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City markets in the first 10 months of this year is mostly luxury apartments - Photo: NAM TRAN

At the Forum for the Real Estate Market to Return to Health and Development, organized by Hanoi Radio and Television on November 16, some real estate experts said that current housing prices are too high and solutions are needed to bring them back to a reasonable level, suitable for the income of the majority of people.

Luxury apartments overwhelm supply

Market reality also shows that the majority of housing supply in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City in the first 10 months of the year was mainly high-end and luxury apartments.

Speaking at the forum, Mr. Le Hoang Chau, Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Real Estate Association, commented that the real estate market has recovered, the issue now is how to develop the market safely, healthily and sustainably.

Mr. Chau said that up to now, Ho Chi Minh City has only achieved more than 1% of the target for social housing development, while more than 70% of the housing supply in recent years has been high-end apartments or higher. The market is developing unsustainably.

According to CBRE Vietnam, in the first 9 months of this year, the supply of newly opened apartments in Hanoi reached 19,000 units, of which 75% were luxury apartments.

In 11 new projects opened for sale in Hanoi in the third quarter, there are 2 projects with asking prices of 50-60 million VND/ ^m2 , 9 projects with asking prices of over 60 million VND/ ^m2 , this asking price does not include VAT and 2% maintenance fund.

Dr. Can Van Luc - member of the National Financial and Monetary Policy Advisory Council, chief economist of BIDV - said that credit growth in 2024 will be about 15%, of which real estate loans will increase by 16%, but home loans will only increase by about 4%.

This shows that people are not really ready to borrow money from banks to buy houses.

According to Mr. Luc, there are 3 reasons why people have not put money down to buy a house: house prices are too high and they continue to wait for prices to decrease and some investors to stimulate demand. Many people are having difficulties after the pandemic. But the biggest reason is that house prices are too high, and solutions are needed to bring house prices to a more reasonable level.

Guests attending the forum "For the real estate market to return to health and development" on November 16 - Photo: B.NGOC

Using taxes to regulate the market

Not believing that the real estate market will quickly develop healthily when implementing new related policies, Mr. Hoang Van Cuong - member of the National Assembly 's Finance and Budget Committee - said that as long as residential real estate is still an accumulated asset, house prices will remain high.

To regulate the market, Mr. Cuong affirmed that taxes related to land and houses must be in place. Taxes regulating the increased value of houses and land must be in place as soon as possible. However, the timing needs to be carefully considered because businesses and the market are currently facing difficulties, and imposing taxes immediately will make things more difficult.

Meanwhile, Associate Professor Dr. Ngo Tri Long - former director of the Institute for Market and Price Research - stated that the unhealthy market is not necessarily due to speculation. In a market economy, investment requires speculation. The State needs to use tax tools to regulate the market.

To limit and regulate, it is necessary to use property tax. The world trend is to tax second homes and more.

According to Dr. Vu Dinh Anh, real estate is a special commodity asset, not only investment, but also speculation is normal. Tax is just a tool to limit real estate speculation.

But the key to combating real estate speculation is land prices. If land prices are not clarified, all tools are ineffective. Land prices must be determined to have a basis for applying tax tools.

Mr. Nguyen Van Khoi, Chairman of Vietnam Real Estate Association:

"The role of market regulation needs to be clearer"

To balance market supply and demand, the role of market regulation needs to be clearer, especially in the housing segment. Without market regulation, we cannot balance supply and demand. Priority should be given to developing social housing and affordable housing for those without homes.

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/tang-nguon-cung-nha-o-vua-tui-tien-ap-thue-chong-dau-co-bat-dong-san-20241116170806147.htm