Vietnamese people hunting for houses in the US

In recent days, many Saigonese have gone to the US to do sight seeing and seek houses to buy at the same time. They can book tours with travel firms for $3,100 per traveller.

The travellers have opportunities to learn about the real estate markets in California, San José and San Francisco and related laws. However, Ngo Duong Hoang Thao, a Viet Kieu in Canada, Director of Great Indochina Consultancy Company, specialising in giving advice on purchasing land and houses in Europe and the US, believes that Vietnamese travel firms organise the tours just because they want to sell air tickets and lease vehicles.

“How can they (travel firms) give true consultancy to customers, if they themselves do not well understand the US real estate market?” he asked.

According to Thao, most people in the US purchase houses by installments, while Vietnamese people have to pay all at once. Besides, he said, people should know that they have to spend a lot of money to maintain houses.

Every year, house owners have to pay a housing tax equal to 1-3% of houses’ values. The owners of houses worth $300,000, for example, have to pay the tax of $3,000-9,000. They also have to pay other expenses to keep the houses, including insurance and fees for repairing electricity, gas and water system.

“If customers are not given advice on these issues, they may get into trouble after they purchase houses,” Thao said.

There is another problem in purchasing houses in the US: paying for them. It is illegal to transfer money from Vietnam to the US to serve the payment due to Vietnam’s strict regulations on foreign currency management. Under the current regulations, travellers abroad cannot take more than $7,000 in cash.

The current investment law stipulates that individuals are allowed to make investment abroad, but house purchases are not considered investments.

David C, a Viet Kieu who has a business in HCM City, said that Vietnamese people can ask their relatives in the US to purchase houses, and then remit money abroad to pay the relatives under different modes. If Vietnamese people do not have relatives in the US, they can do it another way.

The Viet Kieu said that he once acted as a broker of a deal in which a company in the US purchased products from Vietnam worth $500,000. Instead of paying cash for the products, the US company purchased a house in Orange county at the same value for the Vietnamese partner.