Hanoi re-auctions 54 land lots that were paid 100 million VND per square meter and then forfeited the deposit

According to the announcement of the organizing unit, the auction of 54 land lots in Ngo Ba area, Thanh Than village, Thanh Cao commune, Thanh Oai district (Hanoi) will be held on the morning of March 1.

These lots were auctioned by the district in a session with a total of 68 plots of land in August 2024. Of which, the highest lot was paid more than 100.5 million VND/m2. Several other plots in good locations also won the auction with prices around 90 million VND/m2. The remaining plots had winning prices from over 50 to over 80 million VND/m2. This price was 5-6 times higher than the starting price at that time.

However, after the deadline for payment, only 13 plots of land had fully paid their financial obligations with winning prices of 51.6-55 million VND/m2. All winning plots with prices of 80 million to over 100 million VND were forfeited.

At the re-auction on March 1, the 54 plots will be divided into 3 groups based on starting prices. Group 1 has 6 plots with a starting price of about 16.3 million VND/m2. Group 2 has 24 plots with a starting price of 15.2 million VND/m2 and the last group with prices starting from 10.9 million VND/m2 also includes 24 plots.

Compared to last year, the starting price of Group 1 plots increased by about 30%. For Group 3, the starting price increased by more than 26%. This price was approved by the Thanh Oai District People's Committee in mid-January 2025 after Hanoi's adjusted land price list took effect.

Thanh Oai is a southern district, more than 20 km from the center of Hanoi, with a population of more than 200,000 people. This district also has no completed large-scale urban areas.

Auction activities in the districts on the outskirts of Hanoi heated up in the last 4 months of last year. In the first 11 months of 2024, the city collected nearly 18,600 billion VND from land use rights auctions, reaching about 74% of the plan and is expected to complete the target by the end of the year. This figure has nearly doubled compared to previous years (an average of nearly 10,000 billion VND per year).

However, this also revealed many irregularities, commonly the situation of paying high prices and then abandoning the deposit. In December 2024, 5 people were even detained for violations related to paying up to 30 billion VND per square meter in Soc Son district to "prevent the land lot from being successfully auctioned".