Real estate trading floors established in HCM City to make transactions more transparent have failed badly, forcing the city administration to ask related agencies to strengthen management of the sector.

The People's Committee of HCM City has said that it wants the property market to develop in a more transparent, stable and sustainable manner. It has asked the Department of Construction to promulgate more effectively legal documents relating to the real estate market and services among property companies, especially real estate trading floors.

"Currently, many real estate trading floors have not worked effectively as predicted because they did not clearly know and understand all the regulations," said Le Hoang Chau, chairman of the HCM City Real Estate Association.

"Moreover, they are not frequently updated about new rules and legal documents relating to urban development, water treatment and the environment," he said.

The HCM City People's Committee has also asked the Department of Construction to monitor more closely the operations of individuals and organisations trading in real estate.

It has asked for more frequent reports on the operations of trading floors and the violations that are taking place.

The construction department has also been asked to review and perfect policies towards making the real estate trading floors more effective.

Meanwhile, the Department of Planning and Investment has been told to provide timely information about companies investing in property development. It should submit to the city, every six months, a list of companies that have just received investment licenses or had existing licenses withdrawn.

The Department of the Natural Resources and Environment has been ordered to guide district and commune administrations in issuing land-use and house ownership certificates to those who buy real estate products through trading floors. The lower level administrations have been told to co-operate with concerned agencies in exerting greater control over property transactions and services in their localities.

A report prepared by the Department of Construction says that as of 2011, the city had about 356 real estate trading floors, accounting for 50 per cent of the nation-wide total. However, these have been established with a focus on quantity rather than quality, and were poorly managed for the most part, the report said.

About 50 per cent of real estate transactions in the market were taking place outside the trading floors because most investors established their own trading floors to sell projects. 

Source: VNS