Wary of Vietnam's property market
Overseas Vietnamese remain wary of investing in Vietnam's red-hot
real-estate market, despite their growing desire to purchase retirement
homes. While Hanoi issued a decree last November aimed at facilitating
housing sales to Vietnamese with foreign passports, there are remarkably
few
takers--only two homes in Ho Chi Minh City have been sold to overseas
Vietnamese, and none in Hanoi. One reason is that the decree does not
explicitly provide an overseas Vietnamese buyer with the right to resell
the
house.
While officials insist that such a right should be implicitly
understood,
others demur. "You have to state it clearly," says Nguyen Ngoc My,
chairman
of the Overseas Vietnamese Business Club. Another factor is cumbersome
paperwork. Eligible buyers, limited to one home apiece, must be
certified by
the state as falling into certain categories as investors, researchers,
or
"persons who have made valuable contributions to the nation." More
detailed
guidelines were slated to be issued in June, but the matter is bogged
down
between myriad ministries. "It's too problematic," says one Ho Chi Minh
City
investment consultant, adding that the scarcity of bank loans has also
frightened off potential buyers.
The Far Eastern Economic Review - July 11, 2002.
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