Regulations on foreign ownership of housing in Vietnam do not affect other housing policies.

Previously, during a group discussion on the Draft Law on Housing (amended) on June 5, many National Assembly deputies suggested caution with the regulation allowing foreigners to own houses in Vietnam.

Some opinions suggest that foreigners must have investment and Vietnamese nationality to be able to buy and own a house.

According to the Ministry of Construction , allowing foreigners to buy and own houses in Vietnam has been implemented since 2008.

This draft revised Housing Law inherits the provisions of the 2014 Housing Law, which stipulates that foreigners who buy and own houses must be allowed to enter Vietnam. Foreigners must also comply with the regulations on residence and entry according to the Law on Entry, Exit, Residence and Transit.

In Article 19, the draft law clearly stipulates the subjects who are allowed to buy and own houses in Vietnam, including cases where the subjects are economic organizations with foreign investment capital investing in building houses in Vietnam or operating in Vietnam. This provision aims to create favorable conditions for foreigners to live and invest in working in Vietnam.

In response to the suggestion that “only foreigners with Vietnamese nationality can own a house”, the Ministry of Construction explained that this is a policy to encourage foreign investment, in line with the policy of international integration, so the scope of subjects should not be narrowed. The drafting agency proposed to keep it as drafted.

The Ministry of Construction also believes that it is not necessary to stipulate that foreigners must buy houses through an intermediary organization. Because the current law as well as the draft already have strict regulations on conditions.

For example, they are only allowed to buy houses in commercial housing projects, the projects must be located in permitted areas that ensure they do not affect national security.

Foreign organizations and individuals are not allowed to own more than 30% of apartments in a building or no more than 250 individual houses in a project. Foreigners are only allowed to own houses for a maximum of 50 years. “These regulations will not affect the implementation of social housing policies, resettlement, and housing for low-income people in urban areas,” the Ministry of Construction affirmed.

Therefore, the ministry proposed to keep the regulations as in the draft to continue attracting foreign investment in the current period.

According to the Ministry of Construction, from 2014 to now, more than 3,500 foreign organizations and individuals have bought and owned houses in Vietnam, mostly in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Bac Ninh, Binh Duong, Ba Ria - Vung Tau. Foreigners buying houses mainly come from Korea, China, Singapore, the US, Australia, Japan, Malaysia.

The apartments foreigners have bought and owned in recent times are mainly apartments in commercial housing projects, so according to the Ministry of Construction, they do not affect the home buying needs of domestic people.

Source