CaliToday (15/9/2025): Vietnam's real estate sector is currently under intense pressure, facing scrutiny on two significant fronts: widespread reports revealing that property development companies are leading the nation's lists of tax debtors, and a major regulatory move by Ho Chi Minh City to investigate and completely rebuild its official land price framework.
These concurrent developments highlight the significant financial headwinds and structural challenges confronting one of the country's most critical economic sectors.
Property Developers Top Tax Debtor Lists
Recent publications from Vietnam's tax authorities have brought to light a troubling trend: real estate enterprises constitute a substantial portion of the largest tax debtors in the country. This situation underscores the deep financial distress that has plagued the sector following a period of market turbulence.
Market analysts suggest that the mounting tax debts are a symptom of prolonged difficulties, including tight access to credit, high interest rates, and a significant slowdown in project sales and absorption rates. Many developers are facing severe liquidity challenges, struggling to generate the necessary cash flow to meet their financial obligations, including their tax duties to the state. This has not only raised concerns about the financial health of individual companies but also about potential impacts on the state budget and the broader banking system.
Ho Chi Minh City Moves to Rebuild Land Price Framework
In a direct response to market inconsistencies and long-standing issues, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee has officially launched a comprehensive investigation aimed at reconstructing its land price table. This is a monumental task intended to overhaul the system used to value land for official purposes.
The initiative aims to address the vast and widely criticized discrepancies between the official government-stipulated land prices and the actual, much higher, market values. This gap has historically created significant problems in several areas:
Tax Collection: It complicates the calculation of land use fees, a substantial tax that developers must pay when a project is approved.
Site Clearance: It leads to disputes over compensation amounts paid to citizens when the state reclaims land for public or commercial projects.
Transparency: An outdated framework hinders market transparency and creates an uneven playing field.
The investigation and subsequent rebuilding of the price framework are intended to establish a more accurate, transparent, and market-oriented basis for all land-related financial obligations and transactions.
The two issues are closely intertwined. The ambiguity and outdated nature of the current land price system have often been cited as a source of delays and disputes in project implementation, contributing to the financial strain on developers. While a new, more transparent framework could streamline procedures in the long run, it may also result in higher land-related tax obligations, forcing companies to adapt to a new financial reality.
The outcome of Ho Chi Minh City's land price overhaul will be a critical factor in shaping the future stability, transparency, and health of Vietnam's real estate market as it navigates this challenging period of transition.
