Deputy Minister of National Defense Lt.Gen. Tran Don on March 05 worked with Binh Thuan Province’s authorities regarding the Phan Thiet Airport project, namely announcing the PM’s approval on the budget, and requesting the locality to prepare for constructions starting this March, reports said.
As soon as the news broke, real estate dealers and small investors flooded Thien Nghiep Commune where the airport is planned for constructions to promote and purchase the land plots “supposedly” located near the future flight terminal.
According to a local resident, this is at least the third time their commune has seen such a price inflation. “Swarms of people pour into town every time they hear a major infrastructure is going to be built; we are kind of used to it now”, he stated.
On the other hand, commune leaders acknowledged how the locals had sold off most of the land surrounding the future Phan Thiet Airport when it made the news in 2019.
Consequently, buyers who hoarded land plots from 2019 can resell them for higher since actual construction plans had been confirmed this time, a local real estate agent remarked. “Dealers might offer the locals a very small deposit to buy a land plot, so they would only lose a fraction of the land’s worth if they can’t find someone to resell it to”, the man stated.
Meanwhile, commune leaders are concerned about the legality of these private transactions, since there is currently no land plot licensed for commercial purposes in the area. The responsibility of proving the land use rights also falls onto ill-informed locals who might be talked into sales by tricky dealers.
“There were multiple cases back in 2019 where local landowners had to compensate up to triple the deposit they received since their farm lands were technically unusable to a real estate investor”, said a local official.
In response, the communal People’s Committee issued a public service announcement to warn local residents against shady real estate deals, and began to disband illegitimate real estate setups and impose administrative fines.
In Vietnam, real estate dealers are unlicensed middle-men who buy land and houses from the locals, sometimes without obtaining legal use rights, and try to boost the price before reselling them to unsuspecting buyers. Statistics from the Vietnam Association of Realtors in 2019 showed that about 88 percent of practicing brokers are unlicensed.
