Decoding the virtual land fever in Phu Quoc

Faced with the land fever situation inPhu QuocProvincial People's CommitteeKien Giangorganized a seminar on the real estate market. The speech of Director of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment of Kien Giang Nguyen Xuan Loc partly "exposed the truth" about the story of land fever on the pearl island.

According to Mr. Loc, economic development has contributed to the bustling land use rights market in Kien Giang, especially in Phu Quoc.

The land use rights market in the pearl island is of interest to many people and is a positive sign, but the rapid urbanization has led to many shortcomings in the State management of land. Since then, the transfer of land use rights has not been strictly controlled, making the real estate market lack transparency, causing losses to the State budget.

Since the State has paid strong attention to investing in Phu Quoc island district, investors and speculators with the goal of "getting ahead" to make profits have led to the phenomenon of virtual land fever. Since then, the situation of buying, selling and transferring land in Phu Quoc has become very complicated. Kien Giang province has issued many directive documents, strictly prohibiting encroachment on forest land, and warning people about illegal land transactions.

Despite the warnings of the authorities, the situation of arbitrary land use change, illegal construction, leveling and encroachment of forest land is still happening. Transactions on land use rights, both official and unofficial, are increasing day by day.

Statistics on land use rights transfer show that the Land Registration Office Branch and notary organizations in Phu Quoc have been overloaded with the increasing number of real estate transactions. In 2017, there were 7,690 land transfer transaction records with a total area of ​​over 634 hectares. In the first 3 months of 2018 alone, Phu Quoc had 4,578 real estate transaction records (area of ​​over 361 hectares), an increase of more than 200% over the same period. Most of the land transferees have registered residence in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and some other major cities.

Not only that, the transfer of land use rights through the form of authorization; buying and selling land in violation of the law in Phu Quoc also takes place for forest land, land without a certificate, land of unknown origin... through handwritten documents, posing potential risks and dangers for buyers. Some households receiving forest land contracts have secretly transferred land in the form of illegal transfer of contract certificates, making the land use rights market difficult to control.

According to real estate experts, one of the reasons for the recent land price fever in Phu Quoc is fake information. That is the prediction about the future development direction of Phu Quoc Island. Many people have given false information about adjusting the agricultural planning to trade and services in a certain area, which has pushed up the price of agricultural land.

False information about buying land on the pearl island and reselling it for immediate profit has created a land shortage. From there, land brokers took advantage to push up prices in areas that had been given false information about planning adjustments.

The second reason for land price fever is that the information, planning publicity, and announcement of land acquisition projects to the people are often not complete and timely. As a result, people who buy land or speculators lack official information and receive fake information.

The third thing causing land prices to spike is that land and construction inspections and checks are not regular; land violations have not been handled seriously and promptly.

The consequences of the virtual land fever and the lack of information about planning as mentioned above have caused many risks and difficulties for investors and land management in the pearl island. Many real estate transactions in the past were only handwritten, or in areas that were originally forest land or agricultural land, which will leave long-term consequences, giving rise to more complicated land disputes and lawsuits.

The high land prices not only increase the compensation costs but also lead to the situation of roundabout and unclear transactions, causing the land clearance process to be prolonged and causing complaints. As a result, the implementation of investment projects also faces difficulties, reducing the attractiveness of Phu Quoc to investors.