HCM City these days is witnessing a new movement of following training courses on real estate business and brokerage. A staff of the Administration and Management Institute on Huynh Van Banh street in Phu Nhuan district, said that nearly all the trainees, who have registered for the classes, are now the staff of real estate firms and real estate trading floors.

The officer of the institute said that the number of trainees will increase towards the year’s end. It is because the Decree No. 153 and Circular No. 13 by the Ministry of Construction stipulates that from January 1, 2009, individuals and legal entities who practice in the real estate sector must get their practice certificate or have to stop practicing.

Nam, a young man who was seen registering for the training course, said that he is now working as a real estate broker for a company in district 4. Nam said that his colleagues have been rushing to training courses in order to get theie practice certificates prior to January 1, 2009 as requested.

There are some 5,000 real estate trading firms in HCM City, but the number of staff who has undergone training in the field proves to be very small.

A lot of real estate training centres and establishments have been growing and expanding recently. According to the Ministry of Construction’s website, 61 establishments have been granted the license to provide training courses on real estate brokerage, valuation and trading floor management.

The training centres mostly belong to real estate firms, institutes, and economics universities. The Ministry of Construction has set up a frame curriculum for the training, while training establishments compile the lessons in details. 

Sacomreal Training, IFA, and the HCM City Economics University have completed six training courses which gathered nearly one thousand trainees who are waiting for the Ministry of Construction to grant practice licenses.

Professor Le Dinh Thang, from the Real Estate and Land Survey Faculty under the National Economics University, stressed that it is very necessary to provide real estate brokers with more knowledge to make them more professional. A professional staff proves to be the most important thing to build up a professional real estate brokerage market.

However, worries have been raised about the quality of the real estate training courses which now have to meet the overly high demand, as trainees all try to get the certificates before the end date.

People have every reason to worry about the training quality as teachers for the training courses are seriously lacking. Vietnam now has over 60 training establishments in Hanoi and HCM City. The curriculum includes 200 periods on real estate brokerage, real estate trading floor management, and real estate appraisal.

Meanwhile, the current regulations do not clearly stipulate the conditions of real estate training establishments, such as the qualification of teachers at the courses. That explains why some the teachers of training centres, including professors, doctors and masters, and staff of real estate firms as well, still cannot make real estate appraisal.