Land-related procedures a burden: property companies

A real estate project requires 36 approvals from government agencies, and could sometimes go up to 120, Nguyen Quoc Hiep, chairman of GP Invest, said at a forum held Monday to discuss the changes required to real estate laws.

This is because there are 12 sets of laws that govern procedures, and if other related ones are counted, it goes up to 60, he said.

One example of the complication is that there are difficulties in changing the land-use purpose to residential, which is stalling around 400 projects in Hanoi and HCMC, he said.

Le Tuan Hai, head of investment firm Telin Group, said property should be viewed as a commodity that is traded back and forth and so administrative procedures need to be simplified to make transacting easier.

The land valuation process is currently based on personal opinions and therefore could be incorrect, he said.

Economist Vu Dinh Anh said changes are needed not only to real estate laws but also to valuation and price management laws.

Nguyen Manh Khoi, deputy head of the agency for housing and real estate market management, admitted developing the market would be difficult without changes to the laws.

He said all the proposed changes to the laws on housing, property trading and land administration should be presented together to the National Assembly to ensure consistency.