Specific land pricing is "stuck"?

At this time, the market for specific land price consultancy in Binh Thuan is seriously lacking in supply, although everyone knows that in the province there is a list of 45 projects waiting for specific land price calculation, meaning that demand is abundant.

Land valuation consulting company gives up

It is now the end of May 2024. If the deadline set for the end of the first quarter of 2024 was to calculate the specific land prices of 3 major projects with a very clear determination at the meeting to deploy the 2024 socio -economic development plan of the Provincial People's Committee held in early January 2024, it would not have been possible. At that time, setting such a time limit for NovaWorld Phan Thiet and 2 industrial parks Tan Duc, Son My 1 was reasonable, because the calculation of specific land prices of 3 projects that had been built with the journey to remove obstacles, especially with NovaWorld Phan Thiet, had support from the Central Government. And the short time ahead will focus on reviewing the valuation results of the consulting unit in a number of items that did not ensure information collection and calculation methods. Then, the functional sector requested the consulting unit to supplement, complete and send the project valuation consulting results back to the provincial valuation council to carry out the next steps.

Many projects are waiting for specific land prices to be calculated. Photo: Dinh Hoa

However, on February 5, 2024, Decree 12/2024 amending and supplementing a number of articles of Decree No. 44/2014 of the Government regulating land prices and Decree No. 10/2023 of the Government amending and supplementing a number of articles of decrees guiding the implementation of the Land Law were issued. In which there are provisions regulating the calculation of output and input indicators of methods which, according to the perception of consulting companies, are not as clear as Decree 44 and Circular 36. In addition, there are also provisions on the responsibility of land price consulting units that are very clear. So after that, the companies asked to withdraw from the valuation and did not request a refund of the costs they had spent.

According to those interested in the specific land valuation work, this binding responsibility makes consulting companies, which are already confused and do not know how to calculate land prices according to Decree 12/2024, especially according to the surplus method, have decided to cancel the consulting contract and request to liquidate the contract at zero. Of course, this situation is clearer when there is an additional event that the person who made the specific land price was also arrested in a case in the province. Therefore, up to this point, the market for consulting on specific land prices in Binh Thuan is seriously lacking in supply, although everyone knows that in the province there is a list of 45 projects waiting to calculate specific land prices, meaning that the source of demand is abundant.

The Department of Natural Resources and Environment of Binh Thuan province believes that in the current period, the number of consulting units participating in land valuation is very scarce. Due to many obstacles, the department is also proposing to amend Decree 12/2024. National Assembly delegate Dang Hong Sy, from Binh Thuan province, also acknowledged the above situation. The delegate said that the biggest problem is the current way of calculating land prices. Although the decree has been amended and supplemented, most localities cannot calculate land prices to allocate to projects and to carry out the next steps. This delay leads to the consequence of wasting land resources and losing budget revenue.

Find easy ways to calculate land prices

According to the leaders of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment, the lack of consulting units participating in specific land valuation to calculate land use fees and land rent is one of the reasons for the slow determination of land prices. In reality, the capacity of land valuers is still weak and does not meet the requirements in organizing land prices; solutions and supplementing related procedures to carry out land price determination work have not been resolutely proposed; coordination with Council members and departments, branches and sectors has not been really good, and has not been timely in resolving problems in land price determination work.

The fact that consulting units participating in specific land valuation are currently afraid of responsibility has led to the situation of canceling consulting contracts. In the end, it is because the current method of determining land prices is not clear, especially the surplus method which has many potential risks, the input data is not complete and timely, the data for calculating revenue and development costs are all assumptions. Therefore, the situation occurs that each consulting unit or uses different methods, giving very different land prices, not reliable enough. Meanwhile, in the province, there are still projects that do not have enough information and conditions to determine specific land prices, such as no zoning plan, no detailed plan, which also contributes to slowing down the progress of land valuation.

According to Mr. Tran Nguyen Loc, Director of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment, in the coming time, the department will continue to notify and invite land valuation consulting units, contact units of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, the Ministry of Finance and neighboring provinces and cities to find consulting units. In case of still not finding a consulting unit, the department will urgently deploy the content of advising the Provincial People's Committee to establish an interdisciplinary working group to determine land prices. At the same time, the department also advises the Provincial People's Committee to regulate a number of factors forming development revenue and development costs of land plots and land areas in the surplus method when determining specific land prices in Binh Thuan province according to the provisions of Clause 8, Article 1 of Decree No. 12/2024/ND-CP dated February 5, 2024 of the Government.

Mr. Loc added that currently, the 2024 Land Law and the draft Decree on land prices being consulted by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment to the Government for promulgation have many new amendments. The Department of Natural Resources and Environment continues to synthesize reports to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment to complete and include them in the draft decree. Proactively study and closely follow new regulations to advise on land price determination.

National Assembly delegate from Binh Thuan, Dang Hong Sy, said: “If the 2024 Land Law and its guiding documents are issued in a timely manner and meet all conditions, they should be applied early from July 1, 2024 or August 1, 2024. It is necessary to pay attention to guiding the easy-to-implement land price calculation, so that officials, civil servants, and public employees in agencies and units advising on this work can conveniently do it.”

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