Some property brokers tried to sell lands, apartments with dirty tricks as the real estate market remained gloomy.
A man, who wants to be anonymous, said he was swindled as he bought an apartment at the Mo Lao Residential Park in Hanoi’s Ha Dong District.
“Earlier I knew a broker at a popular property firm through a friend. The demand on luxury apartments at that time was pretty high, so I asked him to find one for me in an attempt to cash in,” he recalled.
“Two days later, he [the broker] gave me an invitation to buy an apartment at Mo Lao from a property firm, saying the director of the firm personally invited me to show his respect. He also said the apartments were great deals so the director agreed to spare only one for me,” the man said.
“I borrowed VND300 million (US$15,000) from a bank to pay in advance for the apartment right after that. The real estate firm pleaded that the construction of apartment would be finished in 2 years and I had to pay the remainder of VND1.8 billion ($90,000).
“However, property price of my apartment’s neighbor slumped in the next two months. Therefore, I decided to sell the apartment as I suffered losses from repaying the bank.
“And I struggled to sell it even at the original price, so I had to sell it at a lower price, which caused a VND70 million ($3,500).” He also found out that other people also received “the personal invitation” like him.
Some other brokers work for 5-10 property firms at a time in an attempt to take profit from making insider trading. A broker at a Ho Chi Minh City-based real estate company disclosed he received a huge amount by a property firm to set up a consulting office next to a residential zone of that firm’s rival.
Clients visiting his office were recommended to stay away from houses in that zone. “I said those houses’ quality was in pretty bad conditions and scums gathered there every day,” the broker said.
Another broker said many property speculators created a fake apartment demand to push prices up by buying houses, lands or apartments in a certain area and then sell back to themselves at higher prices. “They earned tens of billions of Vietnam dong from those affairs,” he said.
