According to Paul Mason, president of US-based real estate firm Keller Williams Vietnam, staff in brokerage companies in Vietnam should be trained to meet international standard order to deliver value to their customers.
Despite being an important component of the market, real estate brokerage in Vietnam is showing signs of the development which is rapid but hard to control, detrimentally impacting property buyers. According to experts, lack of professional standards is one of the reasons for this situation.
TheLEADER had a talk with Paul Mason, president of Keller Williams Vietnam, the US real estate company ranked No.1 on the training, on this issue.
What is your opinion about the perspective of Vietnam’s real estate market in the years to come?
In the last five years, the real estate market in Vietnam has grown significantly. We have seen a lot of development, especially a lot of developers and world-class properties.
The increase in supply is likely to create some short-term situations where the market is a little bit softer than it has been in the past. So it may take developers a little longer when they sell properties.
But this increase in supply is very positive for the country in the longer term with large developers succeeding and quickly raising the standard of real estate properties.
Vietnamese developers are very fast at understanding the market and the demand of their customers, making them faster to adapt to the product they are bringing to the market. This is very encouraging.
What do you think about the real estate brokerage in Vietnam?
The market has been changing so quickly, and the existing real estate brokerage also needs to allow changes by educating and training staff to add value to their customers.
However, we are still selling properties in old-fashion ways by shouting as loudly as possible and acting like a taxi driver.
It is very encouraging that the Vietnam Real Estate Association is very focusing on education and training their employees to deliver value to their customers. Therefore, the positive result will be produced after within just next one to two years, helping Vietnam to get to the world-class standard in the real estate industry.
Is it possible for Vietnam real estate brokerage to reach the American standard?
There is a lot to do with the availability of training and Vietnam would absolutely meet the American standard within just two or three years. I find Vietnamese people very smart, hard-working and very focused, which would be the value for Vietnam to raise its standard and Vietnamese will move very quickly.
One of the obstacles of training programs in Vietnam is encouraging people to register for courses. What is your strategy to deal with this situation?
Not only in Vietnam but in other countries in the world, including the United States, it is difficult to call brokers to participate in the courses. However, if we can show them values that the courses could bring about, they will be motivated to join.
In addition to providing knowledge, the courses will have a close watch on the progress of the trainees with parameters and indicators for comparisons of values between learners and non-participants. Brokers still work during the courses so if they are trained carefully, we will immediately see the difference between brokers in their actual work.
Have you ever helped US citizens to buy houses in Vietnam? Are there any obstacles?
In the past, most of the foreign investments in Vietnam real estate have been at the project level. There have been a very small amount of individual investors coming to the market.
There have been also a lot of unofficial investments, especially by the overseas Vietnamese into the property. But the demand for owning property in Vietnam of foreigners has emerged as the market has become more transparent.
There is a strong interest by a lot of overseas buyers in the US, Singapore, Hong Kong, China, South Korea in buying individual property. And I think a lot of that will get easier as the market continues to get mature and there is more transparency, more confidence in the growth of property value.
Vietnam would also need to continue to clarify the legal position and rights of foreign owners, for example, taxation issues.
Thank you so much!
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