A board warning against a land bubble in Binh Ba Ward due to land price hike in recent days. — Photo Zing.vn

Authorities in a ward in Chau Duc District in the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau are warning buyers to be careful when buying land there, saying rumours about a giant property company buying there has caused a price bubble.

They have put up boards in Binh Ba wards saying, “There is no real estate project approved in this area.”

“Please be careful when buying or having land transaction in the area.”

Nguyen Khoa Hung, the Binh Ba Ward chairman, said they have put up three warning boards on some streets in the area to warn both locals and people from elsewhere.

A metre of land, which used to cost VND40 million, has jumped to VND170 million in the last couple of days.

Lands facing the road have seen prices skyrocket to VND480 million and even VND600 million in some places.

Locals said they have never seen anything like this, since Binh Ba has nothing to attract tourists and they subsist by planting rubber and cashew trees.

Online magazine cafeland.vn quoted one of them as saying: “I heard that a big property developer will invest in Binh Ba, but I don’t know the details. I just see that the area is crowded in recent days and land prices are rising to surprising levels.”

A local coffee seller said her shop is full all the day and most of the customers are land buyers.

Locals said nobody in the area had sold their land even after prices shot up, explaining that the price jump was caused by speculators and middlemen.

When Viet Nam News asked Vingroup about this, the company said it has been permitted to do a study but has made no decision to invest yet.

The Chau Duc District administration too said Vingroup had only done a “study” for a housing development, and had made no decision yet.

Ngo Van Luan of the Chau Duc District People’s Committee said most deals in recent days had been speculative.

Few have actually ended up for registration, he said, warning buyers to be careful. — VNS