This paper aims at providing practical information and identifying factors that affect the land price in the urban fringe of the Mekong Delta in order to support a better control over the realty market in this region. | ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT No. 208, December 2011 FACTORS AFFECTING LAND PRICES IN THE URBAN FRINGE OF THE MEKONG DELTA by Assoc. Prof., Dr. LEÂ KHÖÔNG NINH* Fast urbanization has made land prices in urban fringes rise incessantly, and therefore, value of such land should be estimated more precisely. In reality, however, land prices set by authorities are usually lower than market prices, which has led to distortions in the realty market. This paper aims at providing practical information and identifying factors that affect the land price in the urban fringe of the Mekong Delta in order to support a better control over the realty market in this region. Keywords: Land price, realty market, urban fringe, economic growth. real estates, leading to poor efficiency of the 1. Introduction The fast urbanization in recent years has made the land prices in urban fringes rise incessantly and become a matter of concern to authorities, investors and consumers as well. One of market demand now is a method of estimating exactly real values of suburban land to facilitate operations in the realty market. Statistics show that land prices set by authorities are always lower than the market ones. This failure not only hinders development of the realty market but also produces bad effects on potentials for economic growth. The followings are some of them: Firstly, lower land prices set by authorities give birth to an unofficial market that operates beyond the state control and regulations, causing distortions of prices and market demand. Secondly, the difference in price makes both sellers and buyers confused about real value of 2 PRICES OF REAL ESTATE IN VIETNAM market because the commodity does not produce the best benefit when it is transferred to end users. Thirdly, lack of symmetrical and transparent information about real estate prices gives birth to an army of middlepersons who cause more distortions of prices for their profit. Finally, land clearance in housing .
