Lê Minh Quốc, a real estate agent in Hoàng Mai district (Hanoi), is frustrated as he recounts his story of leading many customers to view and buy a house in an alley on Minh Khai street (Hai Ba Trung district), only to have the owner unexpectedly change their mind and not sell.
According to Quốc, at the beginning of February, the owner asked his office to sell a 55m2, 5-story house for 8.5 billion VND.
“I considered this house to have a good location, no feng shui problems, and a reasonable price, so I chose to advise some customers with real housing needs,” Quốc said.
Over the course of nearly a month, out of more than ten visitors, a couple from Nam Dinh agreed to buy the house for their son studying in Hanoi for 8.2 billion VND. This is the highest price among the customers and is close to the seller’s asking price. The buyers agreed to make a deposit of 500 million VND and will complete the payment and paperwork within 20 days.
However, when everything was about to be finalized, the owner suddenly announced that they would not accept the deposit because “they want to wait for a further increase in real estate prices.”
“The owner announced that in order to sell the house immediately, the price would have to be 9.2 billion VND, an increase of 1 billion VND compared to the initial asking price. When the owner quoted that price, not only were the buyers surprised, but even brokers like us also felt resentful,” Quốc recounted.
“Perhaps because of the large number of visitors and the quick price negotiation, the owner regretted it. They also heard news that the market is gradually recovering, so they want to raise the price. The owner’s unexpected change of mind caused me to constantly apologize to the customers, and I was even suspected of colluding with the owner,” Quốc said.
Illustration photo
Anh Nguyễn Thành Huy (Ha Nam) also experienced a similar situation. In early March 2022, the owner of a 108m2 plot of land in the area near Viet Duc 2 Hospital (Phu Ly City) asked a broker to sell it.
“The plot of land faces south, with a wide 8m frontage, which is very beautiful. The desired price was 25 million VND/m2, but after more than 2 years of advertising and running campaigns on social media platforms, there were still no potential buyers,” Huy said.
In early March 2024, the land market showed signs of improvement, and some people inquired about buying it. Huy had called the landowner multiple times and agreed to a price of 22 million VND/m2.
“When the buyer agreed to the price, the owner agreed to sell. My office proactively hired a 7-seat car to bring the buyers from Phu Ly to Hanoi to meet the owner and complete the transaction and deposit. When the parties met, the owner suddenly changed their tone and demanded an additional 3 million VND/m2. After wasting half a day bringing the buyers, only to have the deal fall through, I was even scolded by the customers and had to spend nearly a million VND to pay for the car rental,” Huy said.
Trần Thanh Hải, a real estate broker in Thanh Tri district (Hanoi), is disappointed to say that cases of owners reversing their decision not to sell are not uncommon recently, especially since the beginning of February when the real estate market heated up and bank interest rates declined, prompting many investors to switch to real estate.
Hải has also fallen into this situation. At the end of December 2023, his office received information that a customer urgently needed to sell a townhouse, and the market price at that time was around 15 billion VND. Because the owner needed to raise money for the bank, they wanted to reduce the price to 12 billion VND.
“Although the price of 12 billion VND was not easy to find a buyer, it was not too difficult to sell either. After 5 times bringing customers to view and negotiate the price, and even reaching the stage of payment and completing the paperwork, the owner suddenly announced that they would not sell. They said they already had enough money to repay their debts and wanted to wait for the market to become more active and prices to increase before selling. All the effort I put into finding the lead went down the drain,” Hải said.
According to experts’ assessments, the real estate market is showing positive signs, and prices are no longer deeply discounted. Therefore, it is not uncommon for owners to hold off on selling at their previous asking price in order to sell at a higher price later. Or, they may choose not to sell at all because they have found a way to make money using their property,” explained Nguyễn Văn Đính, chairman of the Vietnam Real Estate Brokers Association.
Real estate market comes back to life, many brokers are frustrated with deals falling through. (Illustration photo)
“When the market shows signs of recovery, investors also wait to sell at prices close to the market price so as not to take a big loss. Therefore, there are many owners who do not sell at their previous prices to sell at a better price later. Or they choose not to sell anymore because they have found a way to generate cash flow,” explained lawyer Nguyễn Doãn Hồng, director of the Da Nang International Law Company.
From a legal perspective, there is no solution to deal with this situation because there is no document or commitment in the transaction. If the parties have received money and signed a deposit contract, it is possible to handle it administratively and claim a commission percentage based on the agreed contract. However, if the agreement was only made verbally, there is no legal remedy.
