Subjects are allowed to own houses in Vietnam
Foreign individuals and organizations living and operating in Vietnam, and foreign individuals and organizations investing in the construction of houses under projects in Vietnam may own houses in Vietnam.
Foreign organizations and individuals investing in the construction of houses under projects in Vietnam have the same rights and obligations as those in the country. However, foreign organizations and other foreign individuals still have certain limitations:
- Only own no more than 30% of the number of apartments in an apartment building; not more than 250 houses if they are separate houses in an area with a population equivalent to that of a ward-level administrative unit;
- Foreign individuals are entitled to own houses for no more than 50 years from the date of issuance of the Certificate; foreign organizations are entitled to own houses for not exceeding the time limit stated in the investment certificate;
- Foreign individuals are allowed to lease houses for use for purposes not prohibited by law and must pay tax in accordance with the law; a foreign organization is only allowed to use the dwelling house for employees of that organization, not to use it for other purposes;
- Housing purchase and lease-purchase payment must be through credit institutions operating in Vietnam;
- Foreign individuals marrying Vietnamese citizens have the same rights and obligations as Vietnamese citizens;
- Before the homeownership expires, the owner can donate, give away or sell to another party; Past this time limit, if the owner does not sell, donate or give away the house, the house shall be owned by the State.
Subjects are allowed to do real estate business and to provide real estate services in Vietnam
According to the law, overseas Vietnamese and foreign-invested enterprises are allowed to do real estate business and to provide real estate services, while other foreign organizations and foreign individuals are only allowed to do provide real estate services.
Real estate business
Foreign subjects doing large-scale real estate business with regular transactions must establish an enterprise with a minimum charter capital of VND 20 billion and must have written confirmation of a commercial bank licensed to operate in Vietnam on the deposit amount of founding members.
Overseas Vietnamese are allowed to conduct real estate business in the following forms:
- Renting houses, constructions for sub-leasing
- Constructing houses, constructions for sale, for lease, or for lease purchase on land leased by the State;
- Construction of houses, constructions for lease on leased land of organizations, households or individuals;
- Receiving transfer of all or a portion of real estate project from investor to build houses, constructions for sale, for lease, or for lease purchase;
- Constructing houses, constructions for sale, for lease, or for lease purchase on land allocated by the State;
- Construction of houses, constructions for business purposes in accordance with land use purposes in industrial parks, export processing zones, hi-tech zones, economic zones.
Foreign-invested enterprises may do business in similar forms, except for investment in land leased by organizations, households or individuals, and land allocated by the State.
The investor of a real estate project, before selling, leasing or buying future houses, must be guaranteed by a qualified commercial bank to guarantee the investor's financial obligations to the customer in case the owner investment does not hand over the house according to the committed schedule.
Real estate service business
Types of real estate service business include: real estate brokerage, real estate trading floor, real estate consulting, and real estate management.
Real estate brokerage business conditions are specified for individuals and organizations, irrespective of Vietnamese or foreign nationality:
- An individual has the right to operate an independent real estate brokerage service but must have a real estate brokerage practice certificate and pay taxes in accordance with the law.
- Organization/ enterprise must have at least 2 people with real estate brokerage practice certificate;
- They cannot be both a broker and a contract execution party in a real estate business transaction.
In order to operate a real estate trading floor, to manage a real estate, an individual and an organization must establish a company and have at least 2 people with real estate brokerage practice certificate.