'Land brokers' secretly agreed to lower prices, district in Nghe An set up 'inner and outer' monitoring team

On the morning of October 15, the Provincial People's Council's Legal Committee had a meeting with the People's Committee of Do Luong district under the program of supervising the auction of land use rights in the province. Comrade Phan Duc Dong - Member of the Provincial Party Standing Committee, Secretary of the City Party Committee, Head of the Provincial People's Council's Legal Committee chaired the meeting. Photo: Mai Hoa

Brokers negotiate price reductions

A representative of the People's Committee of Do Luong district said that there was collusion and price-fixing in auctions taking place outside the auction area and before the auction took place.

Accordingly, the land broker "calls" and gathers people who want to bid for a certain plot of land to negotiate for one of them to win the bid and the winner will pay a sum of money to the broker.

The district’s solution is to establish a monitoring team to monitor the activities at the auction both inside and outside the auction. In particular, the team members will listen to the discussion of the bidding price of each group to directly advise the local government and the auction organizer to increase the price step compared to the starting price through the direct auction rounds at the auction.

Accordingly, the price not only increased by 5% of the minimum prescribed price, but some lots increased by 10%, 20%, even 40, 50% to be close to the market price, making it difficult for brokers to "react". The district also piloted an indirect auction to overcome the situation of brokers.

Chairman of Do Luong District People's Committee Phung Thanh Vinh discussed with the monitoring delegation about the low investment rate in infrastructure planning for land auction areas. Photo: Mai Hoa

Along with the issue of "auction brokers", the Supervisory Team also raised the question of whether or not in Do Luong there are individuals and organizations participating in speculation when there is no real need.

Acknowledging that situation, Mr. Hoang Van Hiep - Vice Chairman of Do Luong District People's Committee said that according to the law, all people with sufficient behavior and financial capacity have the right to participate in the auction, there is no limit on the number of lots allowed to participate in the auction.

To solve this problem, there needs to be regulations to control the number of lots that organizations and individuals can buy; on the other hand, it is necessary to increase the deposit...

At the meeting, the representative of the district People's Committee also affirmed that there is no unhealthy competition between auction organizers in the district, because the district makes public selections based on clear criteria. However, there is an auction that is still selecting an inexperienced auction organizer.

Avoid wasting land resources

Concluding the meeting, Head of the Provincial People's Council's Legal Committee Phan Duc Dong acknowledged the district's active implementation of land auctions, both solving the people's need for residential land and increasing local budget revenue; at the same time, there are solutions to limit negativity in land auctions in the area.

Detailed planning of a land auction area in Do Luong town. Photo: Mai Hoa

The Head of the Provincial People's Council's Legal Committee also requested the district to pay attention to planning land use and strict management, avoiding waste of land resources and ensuring sustainable development; continue to have solutions and measures to overcome shortcomings and limitations in land auctions, pay attention to building starting prices close to the market; proactively research to choose auction forms that limit negativity and comply with legal regulations.

From the beginning of 2018 to September 30, 2019, Do Luong district auctioned 619 land lots with a total area of ​​nearly 122,500 m2. The total amount was more than 281 billion VND.