Illustrative photo. Authorities in HCM City have warned about real estate projects that are making false advertising claims to cheat customers.

Over the past two months, house and land prices in some outlying areas of Ho Chi Minh City have increased.

The Phu Thuan Ward People's Committee in District 7 have just issued a dispatch to warn people not to buy, sell or transfer land in the Venica Garden project on Dao Tri Street.

According to the committee, there have been online offers from the project on some social websites but in fact, there is no such project in the area.

On some websites, the Venica Garden Project is alleged to cover 10,000 square metres with 118 land lots with prices of just VND 2.8 billion (USD121,739) a lot. The project is said to be invested by Kim Tay Nam Company.

Following the dispatch issued by the committee, some websites have removed the information relating to the Venica Garden Project and the Kim Tay Nam Company, when contacted by the provided hotlines, denied their relationship with the project.

In Thu Duc District, authorities in Linh Trung Ward have also warned about possible scams in the land sale offerings at Residential Group 6 by two local real estates firms, Angle Lina Investment Company and Hoang An Group.

An announcement by Linh Trung Ward People's Committee said that there were no housing project in that area which lies in the Vietnam National University-Ho Chi Minh City construction project.

“They invented some residential projects which were offered for sale at low prices to attract customers," said chairman of Linh Trung Ward People's Committee, Tran Quoc Hung. "By doing this they are cheating people who lack information about the projects.

Speaking with the Lao Dong Newspaper, general director of Angel Lina Investment Company, Nguyen Ba Thi, explained that they were building a detailed plan for the construction of a housing project in Residential Group 6 and would file for approval from local authorities soon.

"We're also calling for partners to co-operate and develop the project," Thi said.

Authorities in Phu Tho Hoa Ward in Tan Phu District have also found out that a land lot of over 4,000 square metres which has been planned to build a public park were recently being offered for sale.

According to lawyer Nguyen Thanh Nha from DBS Lawyer Company, local authorities should do more than just issue a warning in order to protect customers from being cheated by real estate firms.

"Many real estate firms are breaking the law by carrying out transactions at bailiff offices instead of public notary offices," the lawyer explained. "The HCM City's Department of Justice should ask local bailiff offices to stop dealing with land and house transactions."

The lawyer also suggested that local authorities should close websites with land and houses sale information which are mostly operating illegally.

Lao Dong/Dtinews