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| Some apartment buildings are seen in HCMC’s District 7. The HCMC Construction Department has reportedly proposed the Ministry of Construction to introduce the housing tax, a plan rejected by property market practitioners - Photo: Dinh Dung |
HCMC – The HCMC Real Estate Association (Horea) has blasted a suggestion to impose the housing tax, saying it is inappropriate to discuss this issue in the face of the current stagnant market.
Le Hoang Chau, chairman of Horea, told the Daily that his association had yet to receive any official information regarding this suggestion from the city’s construction department to the Ministry of Construction as reported by local media after the Tet holiday.
However, he stressed that it is unsuitable for the application of housing taxes at this time.
“Applying housing taxes for the time being only worsens the dreary realty market,” Chau told the Daily on Tuesday. He noted this proposal was no longer new because the National Assembly used to consider and treated it as a pending issue last year.
Along with many other kinds of taxes, imposing housing taxes is regarded as one of solutions to minimize the speculation in the property sector, which is believed to be one of causes pushing up the housing price in the recent past.
According to Chau, all citizens have to pay taxes as one of their duties for the State, the community and the society and other nations have already collected this kind of tax from residents.
The biggest difficult of the real estate market is weak liquidity, proven by the fact that products are abundant but have failed to attract home buyers. Those in need of housing cannot borrow money to buy homes while sellers are thirsty for capital to complete on-going projects.
There are few secondary investors in the market as Marc Townsend, managing director of CB Richard Ellis Vietnam, used to comment that investing in realty is not the game for yellow-bellies.
Chau and many people agreed there would be more ordeals for this year’s realty market since the monetary tightening policy will continue in line with Resolution 11. He hinted at the access to capital resources being restricted while the property market itself lacks of other capital mobilization channels.
