HÀ NỘI — Việt Nam is set to raise the bar for real estate brokerage as experts warn that rapid workforce expansion has outpaced professional standards, transparency and risk management.

The Vietnam Association of Real Estate Brokers (VARS) estimates around 300,000 individuals work in real estate brokerage alongside some 2,000 firms and trading floors in major cities including Hà Nội, HCM City, Đà Nẵng, Hải Phòng, Khánh Hoà and Cần Thơ.

Yet just over 10 per cent hold valid certificates, despite brokers handling nearly 80 per cent of property transactions, and more than half have never received formal training.

Phạm Thị Miền, deputy director of VARS’ Institute of Research and Evaluation, said the sector’s rapid growth has exposed significant shortcomings in professional quality and standardisation.

“Professionalism and quality in brokerage remain limited and uneven,” she said, adding that a lack of clear procedures or unified standards create conditions for some brokers to provide incomplete or inaccurate property information, fail in advisory duties and operate informally without meeting legal requirements.

Low training quality and uneven professionalism have increased risks, undermined market transparency, distorted property values and eroded buyer confidence, Hoàng Thu Hằng, deputy director of the Housing and Real Estate Market Management Department under the Ministry of Construction, said.

Standardisation critical

Experts say lessons from international markets can guide Việt Nam in creating a professional brokerage system.

Nguyễn Mạnh Quỳnh, VARS deputy general secretary, said developed markets combine legal regulations with professional standards, codes of ethics and competency assessments. In the US, the National Association of Realtors enforces a code of ethics alongside state-level regulations, while Singapore and Japan require licensing, continuous training and strict oversight.

As demand for transparency grows alongside market expansion, developing national standards for real estate brokerage is critical to establish professional benchmarks, Quỳnh said.

VARS is working with the Ministry of Construction to create Việt Nam National Standards for Real Estate Brokerage, aimed at standardising practices, improving service quality, enhancing market transparency, helping clients identify reputable firms and brokers, and promoting professional and sustainable development of the brokerage industry.

VARS President Nguyễn Văn Đính said real estate brokerage in a modern market economy should be treated as a professional service requiring legal knowledge, market insight, advisory skills and ethical standards.

“The new standards are not intended to control but to elevate professionalism and lay the foundation for a modern, transparent and internationally aligned real estate brokerage system,” he said.

Nguyễn Quang Tuyến from Hanoi Law University said professional brokers must be distinguished from informal land speculators through compliance with legal and ethical standards.

Nguyễn Hồng Phú from the Ministry of Construction added that the standards should be supported by digitalised data systems and measurable indicators to objectively assess broker performance. He suggested piloting the standards voluntarily before gradually making them mandatory across the industry. — VNS