National Association of Realtors in the United States (NAR) has released more than $ 3 billion worth of homeowners in the United States (from April 2016 to March 2017), which has attracted public attention when the source of foreign currency is not much.
According to Diep Bao Chau, deputy general director of SCB, the official foreign currency transfer service is being strictly complied with by the State Bank. In particular, banks can only receive money transfer for customers to study, pay for work, travel, visit, medical examination abroad...
According to the current regulations, people holding foreign currencies through border gates from USD 5,000/time/person or less do not need to declare goods to customs; If more than US $ 5,000, they must declare to the customs and have documents of the banks can hold foreign currency across the border. For individuals transferring foreign currency (ies) abroad through the system of banks for purposes of study abroad, medical examination and treatment, settlement, investment projects... there must be lawful papers evidencing the amount to be paid into the tuition payment, hospital fees... Depending on each commercial bank allows a transfer of $ 5,000, $ 7,000, $ 10,000, from which the banks can sell foreign currency to those who need to transfer foreign currency for legal needs.
Regulations on the transfer of foreign currency for overseas investment projects of Vietnamese, representatives of the SBV HCM City Branch said that the Ordinance on Foreign Exchange 2005 and the amended Ordinance of 2013 stipulates that the transfer amount does not exceed 5% of total investment capital in foreign part. Accordingly, legal entities must open accounts at a commercial bank after the investment projects abroad are approved by MPI and the State Bank of Vietnam.
According to MPI, from July 2015 to June 2017 the amount of investment abroad in real estate field is 65 million USD. The same time, the ministry has licensed 34 investment projects in the US with a capital of $ 149 million, including processing, manufacturing and telecommunications projects... (excluding real estate).
Thus, controlling foreign currency abroad for purposes of individuals or organizations with foreign investment is very tight and it is very likely that the Vietnamese will not transfer foreign currency through bank system to buy houses in the US.
According to lawer Nguyen Duc Chanh (Ho Chi Minh City Bar Association), the statistics of the NAR only based on cash flow, not to specify the composition, gender. Because most of this money flow is not transferred through the bank system so it is not possible to know where the origin came from...
Therefore, Mr. Chanh said that the NAR report should be viewed as a reference and warned that the Vietnamese authorities should strengthen the monitoring and supervision of offshore money criminals if carried out via bank system should not rely on the report that reasoned about the legitimacy of cash flow, as such will be groundless and one-sided.
Same opinion, said Hoang Van Thanh, a resident of the United States, said that in many states of the United States when buying a home, buyers must prove financial, explain the source of money. There may be cases where property is not transparent, but it certainly can not be as large as the number of families using their own money to buy and sell their property overseas.
"The majority of Vietnamese families who buy houses in the US I know belong to the small private sector, or doctors, engineers ... They have children who are studying, or are in the direction for children permanent settlement in the US and use the money accumulated, even selling property in Vietnam to buy houses in the United States" Thanh said.
According to the analysis of a general director of commercial banks in Ho Chi Minh City, if carefully considered, the transfer of foreign currency through the banks can still have some used to buy houses, real estate investment. For example, if parents in Viet Nam have children in the US, they can use the main credit card products, supplementary cards of foreign credit institutions present in Vietnam, then transfer money to their children through this card to accumulate in order to buy a home. However, this amount will not be much and will have little impact on domestic foreign currency.
However, the director also warned that the large amount of foreign currency transferred as NAR statistics, the authorities of Vietnam should also strengthen the inspection of investment activities abroad because if there are cases of investment hiding between domestic enterprises and foreign companies, the amount of foreign currency can be "hidden" in the contract of import, consulting contract. The actual numbers and origin of foreign currency from these contracts are also difficult to be transparent.
(According to Bank Times)