Thinking about buying a place

Go ahead if you want to be ripped off and lose a lot of money

Good luck. You'll need it

I would sit back and rent for awhile and do some due diligence, its a bit of a mine field in Viet Nam.

At present my wife's family is trying to get back land they own and have the legal paperwork for. Unfortunately a government official in the area liked the land and had fake paperwork made up and sold it off in small blocks. The land is now worth 6 billion vnd and we know we are going to struggle to get it back.

Welcome to the world of dodgy paperwork, I would tread carefully.

Bought land before off two teachers, husband and wife

About to start building a house only to discover that someone else was already building a house.

Turned out the sellers had sold the land to three different people. Took them to court which took 2 years. Eventually got the purchase cost back.

All paperwork seemed to be correct but the other "buyers" also had the correct paperwork.

Turned out that the sellers had done something similar on previous occasions. They did not seem to be bothered about it.

Buyers beware

This is common practice in VN. Give the white envelope and copies of the Red Book will appear. My ex-gf goes to court over things like this all the time, the sellers dont bat an eyelid.

colinoscapee wrote:

At present my wife's family is trying to get back land they own and have the legal paperwork for. Unfortunately a government official in the area liked the land and had fake paperwork made up and sold it off in small blocks. The land is now worth 6 billion vnd and we know we are going to struggle to get it back.

Let me guess.  The official is a northerner who moved down after 1975 and your wife's family were dislocated or perhaps even in reeducation camps when he seized title.    

I have zero residual sympathy for the ancien régime but  a lot of innocent southern people were mistreated between 1975 and 1986.

Check out  this thieving woman. She now has the audacity to appeal, and is asking the court to give her back 2.5 million USD that she stole. These people have no morals.

https://e.vnexpress.net/news/news/forme … 56597.html

Thigv, no not that story, which is very common as we know.

The land in question was given to my wife's grandfather by the chairman of the UBND.  The land was then passed it on to his son, my wife's father. This was only 12 years ago. They have the paperwork from the UBND, and also the registration book for that land. My wife's father used to be in the government in that area, he moved away from that area to start farming in the next provence. The officials are trying to say that because he changed provences that he has no right to the land. Which is not correct.

Foreigner = walking ATM

End of story

@TigerPlease
Why foreigners aren't buying houses in Vietnam
(source: e.vnexpress.net)

Sad.
Difficult enough for Vietnamese.
Foreigners have even less chance of getting a break.
Yet there are millions of Vietnamese and thousands(?) of foreigners who own property.

You've gotta ask yourself one question: "Do I feel lucky?"

Good advice

If you can afford to lose your money then go ahead and take a chance

It's a gamble with the odds stacked against you.

Awesome, thanks for all the horror stories, think I'll invest back home instead.

Hi Tiger,

I have the same idea to buy a place.
I started to check the market :  it is still high for apartments in D2, D1,...let's see
Thinking different why not buying land, build... maintain our own condo as owners ?
Any suggestions ?
I'm still dreaming !
Regards

My wife and me are going to buy a house (incl. the land) in a housing settlement. The seller is a well-known investment and real estate company.

In the first part of the project, we were only able to select one of two houses which we could buy directly from the investor. Otherwise we would have had to buy through a dealer or wait for the second part of the project (completed in one year).

Even though this house was not our first choice, we only decided to buy it so we could buy a house directly from the investor himself.
I translated the whole contract (20 pages) from Vietnamese to my language and most sounds very reasonable.

Despite the fact that I am very distrustful (and the process of buying a home is quite different from my home country), I am confident that everything ends well.

According to the contract, we receive the Red Book at the latest after 12 months.
And only then do we have to pay the remaining 5% of the purchase price.

I think that because we buy directly from the investor and it is a project with finally about 400 houses, I am confident that we will receive a valid Red Book latest after 12 months.

A house in a housing settlement was never my dream.
But to buy a piece of land from a private person (or real estate agent) was simply too risky for me. That's why I opted for this compromise.

@gobot
You added a picture in the post above.
How can I add a picture here?
I can only enter a link.
Can I enter a link from my local harddisk?

Andy Passenger wrote:

How can I add a picture here?
I can only enter a link.
Can I enter a link from my local harddisk?

Yes, you can only enter a link.
How to add a picture to a forum post. 

senwl wrote:

@TigerPlease
Why foreigners aren't buying houses in Vietnam
(source: e.vnexpress.net)

Hundreds may have bought but only 15 paid a bribe to get through the red tape of getting that title deed....pink book proving they actually own it.

I can only speak for myself as I'm looking for an apartment in SE asia as a holiday home.

I bet journalists and estate agents read these expat forums when writing articles like that. At least I wish they would take note.

If you want a foreigner like me investing in property in vietnam.

Sort out an online searchable land registry like we have in the UK.

Stop asking for bribes just to do your jobs.

Estate agents need to step up their game and market properties transparently and in English. You can find thai properties on UK property portals like rightmove. 

Developers need to stop treating foreigners like idiots. The only unit left happens to be the most expensive one on the block and because it's the last, prices have gone up? Really? That's not what you told my Vietnamese GF at the time when i got her to enquire separately.

Let the housing market blow up and come back down to reality. A massive price correction is needed. a 60K GBP studio condo in central bangkok is about 80K GBP in central Ho Chi Minh where there is no public infrastructure and are of inferior quality. Don't get me started on condo's along the coastal areas of either countries.

Thailand! better value, it's actually fun to search, better infrastructure, better quality, easier to purchase, less bureaucracy, less chance of being skanked.

Agree that prices and quality in Thailand is better. I have said it for a long time, real estate in VN is overpriced, especially when  the average wage is just 3000 usd a year.

Best way to keep everyone poor and living under the same roof right?

At $150,000 for a modest home in an outer district of HCMC, that is 50 years of the typical income.  These prices are only sustained by outside money from parents or other relatives.  There is also the fact that many live rent free with relatives while saving.  However even if Vietnamese are amazing savers, nobody saves 100% of their salary for 50 years.  Rollovers from other purchases are also a factor.  Buy an apartment first, then roll it into a house.

Still 50 times annual income is a bubble by any definition.