Decree 339 increases fines for violations of money laundering prevention and combat in real estate to VND 40-80 million

Exchanges, brokers, and consulting units that do not report suspicious transactions of high value will be fined 40-80 million VND, according to Decree 339.

The Decree on sanctioning administrative violations in construction, housing development, and real estate business takes effect from August 26, supplementing sanctions for acts of preventing and combating money laundering.

According to Article 77, organizations and individuals doing real estate service business that do not report suspicious transactions of great value or provide dishonest information and documents will be fined 40-80 million VND. Additional sanctions include suspension of business operations for 1-3 months. Violating organizations and individuals will have to post corrections of inaccurate information as a remedial measure.

A fine of 20-40 million VND is applied when organizations and individuals doing real estate business do not have internal regulations on money laundering prevention and combat; Not yet implemented or lacking in collecting, storing, and securing information and transaction records.

According to the Law on Real Estate Business 2023, real estate service business activities include trading floors, brokerage, consulting and real estate management. In particular, the trading floor is where transactions on buying, selling, transferring, leasing, and renting real estate take place.

Real estate brokerage service businesses are fined 60-80 million VND if they lack periodic reports, operating regulations, facilities or do not have at least one employee with a practicing certificate.

The new regulations also increase sanctions related to information systems and databases in the real estate sector. Organizations that do not provide or report incorrectly or lack data on housing and the real estate market will be fined 800 to 1 billion VND, more than 12 times the old level (60-80 million).

Cases of providing and sharing data with third parties or exploiting and using information and data about housing and the real estate market in violation of regulations will be subject to a fine of 60-80 million VND.

According to experts, real estate is a field with large transaction value and high accumulation. The addition of penalties for money laundering prevention and combat in real estate service businesses helps increase transparency in money sources, promoting healthy market development. The new regulations also help increase the responsibility of trading floors, brokers, and consulting units in storing and managing transaction records to prevent and combat money laundering.