Experts said it is crucial to bring the property trading floor system under a strict management to boost the transparency of the real estate market. — Photo nld

HA NOI (Biz Hub) — The management of the operation of property trading floors and brokers must be tightened to prevent any speculation and boost the transparency of the currently upbeat realty market.

According to the Ministry of Construction, the development of property trading floors in recent years failed to meet market expectations and the percentage of property transactions conducted through trading floors was estimated at a modest rate of 15 per cent, affecting transparency and leaving buyers hungry for information about housing projects.

Now, many buyers must shell out extra money, which sometimes goes up to hundreds of millions of dong, to buy apartments offered by various project developers.

Recently, the Ministry of Construction asked to tighten checks on property developers and trading floors to ensure that they comply with regulations, especially in Ha Noi and HCM City. This will also prevent the spread of inaccurate information, illegal sale of apartments, pushing up housing prices through intermediaries, and unreasonable fees.

Experts said it is crucial to bring the property trading floor system under a strict management to boost the transparency of the real estate market.

The ministry's Department of Housing and Real Estate Market Management's statistics suggest that as of the end of last year, there were more than 1,000 property trading floors, mainly in Ha Noi and HCM City, handled by close to 35,000 qualified brokers.

A source from a property firm noted that he thought only half of those trading floors were under real operation and only a few had adequate capacities and operated efficiently.

From the beginning of this year, the market has witnessed a boom in the number of property start-ups, with realty consultant companies and many property firms planning to hire thousands of brokers this year.

Nguyen Manh Ha, the department's Director, previously said that in the absence of comprehensive standards for brokers and trading floors, the existing laws failed to cover all property brokerage operations.

Experts remarked that management policies, together with policies to enhance the quality of real estate brokers, are needed to prevent unhealthy competition among property brokering firms.

Quality products

The existing regulation that property transactions must be conducted through trading floors has proved inefficient and the Law on Real Estate Business 2014, which will come into effect on July 1, removes the compulsion of this regulation.

Many experts said that a new regulation will allow home buyers to have more options and enhance transactions through trading floors, which might help eliminate trading floors that are not efficient, and improve the quality of realty brokering.

Le Hoang Chau, president of HCM City Real Estate Association, expects that property brokers will become more professional from July 1. "Only trading floors offering quality products and professional operations can maintain trusts in investors and buyers and can develop," he said.

Chau added that healthy property trading floors will contribute to push the property market to its real value and prevent speculation.

The Ministry of Construction has drafted a circular regulating the foundation of property trading floors and certification of property brokers. The draft has been released for receiving comments. — VNS