VietNamNet Bridge – The real situation of the real estate market in 2013 can be described by the 10 figures.

With the endorsement of nearly 90 percent of deputies, the National Assembly on November 29 officially ratified the amended Land Law.

One of the most noteworthy provisions of the amended law is the association with the amendment of the 1992 Constitution relating to the issues of land ownership, land recovery, compensation for site clearance, resettlement and the establishment of independent agencies to valuate land.

The law stipulates that involved parties have to consider the issues relating to the means of subsistence of the people who have to give the land back to the state.

Hanoi will have two new urban districts, Bac Tu Liem and Nam Tu Liem, which would create a new face for the real estate market. The establishment of the two new districts with 23 wards was officially approved by the government on December 2. The land prices in the two districts have been increasing rapidly since the approval was made published.

The 50 percent VAT reduction applied to some commercial housing projects is believed to be an important policy which would help defrost the real estate market in 2014.

The tax reduction would be applied to the real estate projects which have the selling prices below VND15 million per square meter (including the 10 percent VAT) for the tax declaration period from July 1, 2013.

The Ministry of Construction is compiling the draft housing law which says that the apartment ownership would have the duration of 70 years.

The buyers of the apartments built on the land allocated or leased by the State would have the right to possess the apartments for 70 years. After that, people would have to hand over the right to use the apartments to the state, which would consider the actual situations--decide to destroy the houses to give place to other construction works.

The disbursement rate of 1.56 percent is of the VND30 trillion capital package aimed to rescue the property market after six months.

The latest report of the State Bank of Vietnam shows that by November 30, 2013, the five authorized commercial banks had disbursed VND470.8 billion. With the current disbursement rate, analysts say it would take banks 32 years to disburse the sum of VND30 trillion.

Regarding the real estate prices, the Ministry of Construction said the prices have decreased to the levels seen seven years ago, in 2006.

The prices have dropped sharply by 10-30 percent from the peaks gained in 2008-2010. Especially, Sunrise City project of Novaland and Everrich 3 of Phat Dat Company in HCM City have seen the prices down by 50 percent if compared with the prices of two years ago.

A report of the Ministry of Construction showed that 411 real estate projects covering an area of 6,645 hectares in total, have been halted in 38 localities. More than 2,900 projects are being implemented with the total land area of 76,800 hectares.

The ministry has reported the sharp decline in the real estate inventories, though more products have been launched into the market. By the end of November 2013, the total inventories had reduced to VND96.805 trillion, a sharp fall of 24 percent from the first quarter.

70 percent of bad debts relating to the real estate market have been purchased by the Vietnam Asset Management Company (VAMC)

The total investment capital of the real estate projects licensed by the end of November 2013 had reached $884 million.

K. Chi