Property tax needed to prevent land hoarding: minister

Speaking at a Q&A session in the National Assembly Wednesday, he said for such taxes to be imposed laws on taxes and land administration need to be changed.

"High taxes will prevent land hoarding and could lower prices. We need taxes to prevent such behavior as this does not yield any socio-economic value". He was referring to keeping lands unused for a long time after acquiring them.

In the U.S., people with many properties are subject to high taxes, which encourages them to rent or otherwise use them, he said.

He pointed out that these taxes would only hurt those who keep their properties idle.

His demand comes after the Ministry of Finance said recently that it was not considering a new property tax to allay developers’ anxiety following reports it is doing so.

Most experts that VnExpress spoke to agreed that a property tax is needed to stop the surge in prices that has occurred in recent years, but developers are concerned about the negative impacts on the market.

Dang Hung Vo, a former deputy minister of natural resources and environment, said the current taxes and fees on real estate are too low and a new property tax is needed.

He estimated that since the doi moi economic reform in the 1980s, land prices have risen by 300-400 times.