Le Minh Quoc, a professional real estate broker in Hoang Mai district (Hanoi), shares his frustrating experience after bringing many customers to view and purchase a house in an alley on Minh Khai street (Hai Ba Trung district), but then the owner unexpectedly changed their mind and refused to sell.
According to Quoc, at the beginning of February, the owner asked his office to advertise a 55m2 house with 5 floors for sale at a price of 8.5 billion VND ($367,700).
“I considered this house to have a good location, no Feng Shui issues, and a reasonable price, so I selected and advised several interested customers,” Quoc said.
Within nearly a month, among over ten customers who came to see, a couple from Nam Dinh agreed to purchase the house for their son who is studying in Hanoi, at the price of 8.2 billion VND ($355,600). This is the highest price among all the customers and is close to the initial asking price. The buyers agreed to make a deposit of 500 million VND ($21,600) and complete the payment and paperwork within 20 days.
However, when everything was close to completion, the owner suddenly announced that they won’t accept the deposit because they want to wait for the property prices to increase.
“The owner announced that in order to sell this house immediately, the price must be 9.2 billion VND ($398,300), which is 1 billion VND ($43,200) higher than the initial asking price. When the owner stated that price, not only the buyer was shocked, but also we, as real estate brokers, felt outraged,” Quoc explained.
“Perhaps due to the large number of viewers and the fast decision-making process, the owner had regrets. They also heard rumors that the real estate market is picking up, so they want to increase the price. The owner’s unexpected change of heart caused me to continuously apologize to the customers, and even be suspected of colluding with the owner,” Quoc continued.
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Similarly, Nguyen Thanh Huy (Ha Nam) shared a similar situation. Since the beginning of March 2022, the owner of a 108m2 plot of land near Viet Duc 2 Hospital (Phu Ly City) had been asking him to sell through a real estate broker.
“The plot of land is south facing, with a wide 8m frontage, which is very beautiful. The desired price is 25 million VND ($1,080) per square meter. However, despite over 2 years of online advertising on social media platforms, there were no interested buyers,” Huy said.
At the beginning of March 2024, when the land market showed positive signs, and there were some interested buyers, Huy had made several phone calls to the landowner and agreed on a selling price of 22 million VND ($950) per square meter.
“When the buyers agreed on the price, the owner agreed to sell. My office proactively arranged a 7-seater car to bring the customers from Phu Ly to Hanoi to meet the landowner and complete the deposit transaction. However, when they met, the landowner suddenly changed their tone and demanded an additional 3 million VND ($130) per square meter. After spending half a day bringing the customers there, and then being caught off guard, I even had to pay nearly a million VND ($43) for the transportation,” Huy said.
Tran Thanh Hai, a real estate broker in Thanh Tri district (Hanoi), also expressed frustration over cases where owners changed their minds and decided not to sell their properties. This phenomenon is not uncommon, especially since the beginning of February when the real estate market started to heat up and the bank interest rates decreased, leading many investors to shift their investment focus to real estate.
Hai himself had fallen into this situation. At the end of December 2023, his office received information about a customer who urgently needed to sell a townhouse at around 15 billion VND ($647,900), which was the market price at that time. Due to the owner’s need for liquidity with the bank, they were willing to accept a loss and settle for 12 billion VND ($518,300).
“Even though finding a buyer at the price of 12 billion VND wasn’t easy, it wasn’t too difficult either. After 5 times of bringing customers to view and confirming the price, and when it came to the stage of receiving payment and completing the paperwork, the owner suddenly announced that they won’t sell. They said they had enough money to pay off their debts and wanted to wait for the market to become more active before selling. All the effort I put into bringing the customer was in vain,” Hai bitterly recounted.
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 hesitate and wait for prices to increase at this time.
Real estate becomes active again, many brokers get disappointed. (Illustrative image)
“When the market shows signs of recovery, investors also wait to sell at market prices without incurring significant losses. Therefore, many owners refuse to sell at the previous price in order to sell at a better price later, or they decide not to sell because they have found other financial solutions,” explained Nguyen Van Dinh, Chairman of the Vietnam Real Estate Brokers Association.
According to lawyer Nguyen Doan Hong, Managing Director of the International Law Firm in Danang, this is a common situation in real estate transactions.
From a legal perspective, there is no solution to handle such cases because there are no official documents or commitments in these transactions. In cases where parties have received money and signed a deposit agreement, administrative remedies can be pursued, and a commission fee compensation according to the contract can be claimed. However, if the agreement was only verbal, there is no legal recourse.
