Vietnam’s real estate transparency index goes up

Vietnam’s real estate transparency index has improved, said experts of Jones Lang Lasalle, one of the world’s leading groups in real estate service and market research, at a press conference announcing the group’s presence in Hanoi.

This group will release its report on the real estate transparency index 2008 next week.

Christopher Fossick, Jones Lang Lasalle’s Southeast Asian Managing Director, said Vietnam’s real estate market has many factors that are less transparent than other countries. However, these indexes have been improved consistently.

The improvement is shown through the amendment of regulations on land, investment formalities, site clearance, etc., which favour foreign investors. Jones Lang Lasalle released the real estate transparency index for the first time in 1999 after surveys of 56 markets in the world.

The report is released every two years and it is a way for real estate investors to determine opportunities and strategies on a global scale. The ranking has five levels: very transparent, transparent, average, low and grey area.



source: http://english.vietnamnet.vn/biz/2008/06/787793/

Investors stay glum as VN-Index falls

Investors continued to hold back on their trading, pushing the VN-Index even further past the 400-point mark on June 6.

VN-Index closed down 1.41 percent on June 5 at a stunning 390.08. Trading revenue stayed at 70.07 billion VND (4.38 million USD) with 2.43 million shares changing hands, representing a slight increase of 12.85 percent over the June 4 session.

Only eight codes managed to gain anything on June 5, including strong stocks Vincom (VIC), Agifish (AGF) and North Kinh Do (NKD).
Penny stocks continued to dominate, with strong gains by BT6 of Chau Thoi Concrete Corporation No620 and SGT of Saigon Telecommunication and Technologies.

“Predictions of another weak day for the VN-Index drove investors away,” reported the analysis department of SME Securities.

Investors were also expecting more Government intervention in the stock market, warding off any reinvestment although many favourable factors were present, the department noted.

Foreigners kept up their activity in the local market. They became net buyers on June 5 with 234,910 shares changing hands.

“Local traders used to follow what foreigners did. But they can’t now because they’re coping with their own problems,” said Nguyen Hai Hung, a veteran investors with An Binh Securities.

Hung noted that since foreigners were not feeling the effects of problems in the local economy, mainly inflation and lack of liquidity, these issues were not impacting foreign trade. Foreigners continued to prove active, taking advantage of low prices.

In Hanoi , the HaSTC-Index tumbled 1.72 percent on June 5 at 111.65. Trading revenue stuck at 12.66 billion VND (791,250 USD), a reduction of 36.76 percent over the June 4 session.

Just two small caps advanced in the session, while blue chips like ACB of Asia Commercial Bank, and PVS of PetroVietnam Securities plunged by nearly 3 percent, the regulated trading band in the northern market.

source: http://www.vnagency.com.vn/Home/EN/tabid/119/itemid/252907/Default.aspx

Vietnam tops list of emerging destinations for retail investment

Vietnam has emerged as the most attractive emerging market destination for retail investment, said A.T. Kearney, the world leading management consulting firm.

This was shown in the seventh annual Global Retail Development Index™ (GRDI), a study of retail investment attractiveness among 30 emerging markets conducted by A.T. Kearney.

According to the study, Vietnam's leap from fourth in the 2007 GRDI to first place in 2008 was driven by strong GDP growth, changes to the country's regulatory structure favouring foreign investors, and increasing consumer demand for modern retail concepts.

While Vietnam 's 20-billion USD retail market pales in comparison to India or China, the absence of competition and 8 percent GDP growth make it an attractive expansion opportunity for global retailers, the study said.

Moreover, Vietnamese consumers are among the youngest in Asia, with 79 million below the age of 65, and increased their consumer spending by more than 75 percent between 2000 and 2007, the firm added.

Now is the “perfect time” to get involved in Vietnam’s retail market, said Mike Moriarty, a partner with A.T. Kearney and co-leader of the GRDI.

Published since 2001, the GRDI helps retailers prioritise their global development strategies by ranking the retail expansion attractiveness of the emerging countries.

source: http://english.vietnamnet.vn/biz/2008/06/786454/

Registration fee policy will see big changes

The registration fee policy, which aims to recognize and protect the ownership of assets, has become unsuitable to the new circumstances. The Ministry of Finance has proposed that the Government to amend the policy.

Car registration fee increase proposed

Burden on the poor, nonsense to the rich

Registration fees have become a burden on people, especially poor people. Under the current regulations, people who buy new properties have to pay the registration fee of 1% of the land prices stipulated by local people’s committees. As the land prices have been skyrocketing, the sums of money people have to pay for the registration have become very large. Besides, people also have the land use right assignment taxes of 2% on agriculture land, 4% on housing land and non-agriculture land, and other fees for procedures.

According to the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment (MNRE), the heavy taxes and registration fees prove to be one of the biggest reason that has caused the delays in granting red books (certificates on land use rights).

The reports by 51 localities on the reasons behind the tardiness in red book granting by the end of 2007 showed that in Quang Ninh and Tien Giang, 100% of the cases were because of the heavy expenses. Financial problems made up 52% of the reasons why the red book granting has been slow. In Hanoi, 50-60% of people have not come to state agencies to get red books, because of the high expenses they have to pay to get the books.

According to an official from the ministry, if considering that every household in rural and mountainous areas has 300 sq m on average, and the land price of VND1-1.5mil/sq m, the registration fee every household has to pay may be as high as VND3-5mil, which is very unreasonable.

The Government has decided that in big cities, people have to pay 5% of car registration, or 3% higher than in other localities. However, the regulation has not helped ease the traffic congestion in big cities. People have been trying to avoid paying high registration fees by making registration under others’ names in other localities which set lower fees. The recent decision by the Ministry of Finance to raise the import tax on cars has also helped in reducing the traffic problem in big cities.

MOF’s plan not welcomed

In order to graple with the pointed out shortcomings, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) has wrapped up the draft regulation to replace the current regulations relating to the registration fee.

The registration fee on land has been proposed by the ministry to lower from 1% to 0.5%, while the fee on cars (with less than 10 seats) to be raised to 10% (as for Hanoi and HCM City, the maximum registration fee may be up to 15%).

The Ministry of Justice thinks that the proposed imposition of the registration fee of 10-15% proves to be overly high.

Le Quoc Dung, Deputy Chairman of the National Assembly’s Finance and Budget Committee, said that it is illogical to impose the registration fee on land. People have to pay the land use right assignment tax and fees for procedures already, and they should not be asked to pay one more type of fee, the registration fee.



source: http://english.vietnamnet.vn/biz/2008/05/785565/