Rural land auctions are bustling.

(Baonghean) - Previously, the rural land market in Nghe An was quite quiet. However, since 2016, land trading activities have become active again. Thanks to the land fund, localities have more conditions to build infrastructure.

In Bac Thanh and Yen Thanh communes, the auction at the end of 2016 was quite exciting. Mr. Le Van Thuy - Vice Chairman of Bac Thanh Commune People's Committee said: The commune has proposed to the District People's Committee to plan land auctions along National Highway (QL) 7b to develop commercial services.

The Commune People's Committee coordinated with the International Auction Company to organize an auction of the right to use 38 plots of land along National Highway 7b. The auction was very exciting, with more than 300 customers inside and outside Bac Thanh Commune. Most of the plots of land put up for auction were higher than the starting price. For example, 1m2 of land before the auction was 2.3 million VND, after the auction it increased to 3.5 million VND/m2.

Officials guide people through land auction procedures in Yen Thanh townPhoto: Van Truong

It is expected that in April 2017, Bac Thanh will continue to auction 40 lots of land along National Highway 7b. However, according to Mr. Le Van Thuy, to ensure safety in land auctions, especially to avoid land brokers, the commune proposes to increase the deposit to 30% of the land value in the next auction to limit land brokers, invite reputable land auction companies to organize the auction, and avoid the situation where the auction company colludes with land brokers to raise prices to make illegal money. In addition to the commune's security force, the district People's Committee needs to strengthen the district police force to ensure security for the land auction.

According to Mr. Nguyen Thanh Ha - Vice Chairman of Yen Thanh District People's Committee, recently, real estate transactions in the district have started to become active again. In 2016, Yen Thanh auctioned more than 300 land use rights, worth more than 82 billion VND.

The revival of this market can be explained by the loosening of some credit policies. Right at the market and town points, people have increased demand to buy for commercial services. Although the selling price has been adjusted, it is still at a suitable level.

Therefore, most of the land lots put up for public auction were bought up. To limit land brokers, the district has proposed solutions such as setting starting land prices close to market prices, disseminating to the people about the law on not “cooperating” with land brokers; and mobilizing security forces to protect before, during and after land auctions.

A land auction in Yen Thanh townPhoto: Van Truong

Not only in Yen Thanh, in Quynh Trang commune, Hoang Mai town, the land market has been "warming" again in recent years. Mr. Le Si Hiep in Quynh Trang commune shared: "Because of the need to buy land for business, my wife and I made an auction and bought land in village 3, along the road to Vuc Mau lake with an area of ​​247 m2, priced at 3 million VND/m²".

Mr. Le Dinh Si - a land officer of Quynh Trang commune said: In the recent land auction, Quynh Trang planned to sell 13 plots of land, but more than 100 people registered and 100% of them were sold after the auction, with a total value of more than 6.2 billion VND. Currently, in Hoang Mai town, there are quite a lot of project land, but people prefer to buy State land because they feel more secure, and after buying, they will be issued a certificate immediately.

The town has approved reasonable prices and Quynh Trang commune focuses on investing in adequate infrastructure, so land buyers will have convenience when building houses. Quynh Trang has just continued to plan and prepare for auctioning 19 residential land lots, the State price is 500,000 VND/m2, expected to reach 1.2 - 1.5 million VND/m2 after the auction. Thanks to the 40% land fund, the commune has a budget source to build infrastructure, determined to reach the new rural destination in 2018.

Mr. Pham Van Hao - Head of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment of Hoang Mai town added: In 2016, Hoang Mai town auctioned land use rights and won over 250 plots of land, with a total value of over 80 billion VND. Localities auctioned off many plots of land use rights such as Mai Hung ward with 43 plots, worth 19 billion VND; Quynh Phuong ward with 18 plots, worth 4.3 billion VND...

The auctions were bustling, to make the auctions transparent and safe, the Hoang Mai Town Auction Steering Committee has strengthened security; there are solutions to increase the auction price to avoid the situation of land brokers "negotiating". Land bidders are all given cards, if they do not have a card at the auction, the security team will invite them out.

Currently, 10/10 communes and wards of Hoang Mai town have land use planning. Depending on the needs, localities will auction land. In Hoang Mai town alone, there are 6 infrastructure investment projects to "divide and sell plots", of which, the Cua Con residential tourism and service project in Quynh Di ward, due to its fairly synchronous infrastructure investment, has sold the most plots of land.

Land lots in Quynh Di ward, Hoang Mai town have just finished auctioning land use rights, people are starting to build housesPhoto: Van Truong

In addition to the achieved results, the property auction activities still have some shortcomings and limitations due to the infrequent implementation of propaganda work, leading to a small number of people having information to participate in the auction. Meanwhile, the process of transferring and buying and selling land auctions is related to the local government, so when transferring the land auction to businesses to carry out, people do not really trust and do not participate in the auction.

In addition, the capacity and practical experience of auctioneers in some auction organizations have not met the requirements in each specific activity. There are still situations of "blue team, red team", collusion, price suppression, the value of assets sold exceeding the starting price is not high, there are no criteria for selecting auction organizations, mechanisms to control auctions... The distribution of auctioneers and property auction organizations is uneven between regions.

In the province, the auction team and property auction enterprises are currently mainly concentrated in Vinh city. There are still some localities that have not signed auction contracts with property auction enterprises to sell assets such as Que Phong, Quy Chau, Tuong Duong, Ky Son, Con Cuong. Thus, it can be said that up to this point, the instructions on determining the starting price for auctioning land use rights when the State allocates land with land use fees and leases land are not uniform, so the application to organize auctions of land use rights in localities has encountered many obstacles and is difficult to implement.

Van Truong