Open door for projects "stuck" in land prices

Recently, Mr. Le Van Dung, Chairman of the People's Committee of Quang Nam province, stated that one of the key tasks in August of the local government is to urgently advise and consolidate the Land Valuation Council specifically to promptly carry out land valuation work for projects, especially projects with backlogs and problems with land prices as pointed out by the Central Inspection Team.

Regarding this issue, Mr. Le Van Dung authorized Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Tran Nam Hung to be the Chairman of the Land Valuation Council.

Immediately after receiving it, Mr. Hung requested the Department of Natural Resources and Environment to re-establish the Submissions, with all relevant documents and the draft Decision of the Provincial People's Committee, requesting approval of the specific land price plan of 3 projects: Smart City Urban Area, Hung Thinh Urban Area and Dat Quang Riversdise Urban Area.

In which, it is affirmed that the land price plan of each project above has been reviewed but does not contain any violations as pointed out by the Central Inspection Committee; report and advise the Provincial People's Committee before August 31 for consideration and approval.

For the Investment project to build housing in the Truong Xuan Market Residential Area and the Smart City Urban Area project, the Department of Natural Resources and Environment must urgently develop a land price plan and submit it to the Provincial Land Price Appraisal Council before August 31 for appraisal and completion of the dossier, and submit it to the Provincial People's Committee for consideration and decision.

At the working session with the Quang Nam Province Business Association on August 12, Mr. Hung shared that for the current land price, if it is newly established, it will take more time.

The old Land Law or the new Land Law both require the completion of infrastructure in accordance with the approved 1/500 detailed planning. The Provincial People's Committee has calculated the plan, for group 1, which are enterprises that have completed their financial obligations and completed their infrastructure, the handling direction is that the province will accept the money that the enterprise has deposited into the temporary account as collateral, the enterprise commits to fully perform, and will pay, then the State will issue the certificate. The Provincial People's Committee will report to the Provincial Party Committee Standing Committee on this issue.

The second group is enterprises that have fulfilled their financial obligations but have not completed the approved 1/500 infrastructure, then the enterprise will not be allowed to separate the land plot and issue the certificate. In this group, if the enterprise has completed 80% of the infrastructure, the Provincial People's Committee will report to the Provincial Party Committee Standing Committee and present a plan to issue the certificate.

Businesses, the State and people are all affected.

According to the law, after the decision on land allocation, land lease, land use purpose change, or change of architectural planning criteria is made, the competent authorities must be responsible for implementing the appraisal and approval of land prices so that land users can fulfill their financial obligations regarding land.

Fulfillment of financial obligations regarding land is an important basis for State agencies to issue certificates of land use rights and ownership of houses and constructions attached to land.

This means that when land prices cannot be determined, leading to late payment of land use and rental fees, businesses will be unable to fulfill their financial obligations to the State and will be unable to issue land use right certificates to customers.

Thus, in case of a deadlock in determining land prices, all three parties, enterprises, the State and people, must suffer the consequences and disadvantages.

On the business side, most businesses have to borrow from banks and pay huge monthly interest to buy land. Therefore, if a project cannot be implemented just because of problems in determining land prices to calculate land use fees, it can push the business into bankruptcy.

On the State side, when projects are not granted land use rights, it will cause the State budget to lose revenue.

For the people, not being granted land use rights means not ensuring their rights. When people do not have a need to use the land, reselling it is also difficult, lower than the market price.

In Quang Nam province, there are currently 14 housing projects that have completed the construction of technical infrastructure, social infrastructure, and service infrastructure of the project according to the 1/500 detailed planning. However, due to errors in determining land prices, the land price must be re-approved.

In addition, 8 other projects have been assigned land in parts, meaning the entire project area has not been assigned because site clearance has not been completed and infrastructure investment on the assigned land area has basically been completed, and are also waiting for land price determination.

Many business owners said that currently, one of the biggest problems in Quang Nam province is determining land prices. Only when the specific land is determined, can the issuance of land use right certificates be resolved. Therefore, the news that the Quang Nam provincial government is stepping up to remove obstacles in determining land prices is considered a positive sign.