Overseas Vietnamese will have 'open doors' to buy real estate in Vietnam

The 2024 Land Law (effective from January 1, 2025) has many new points, of which the most notable new point is the expansion of land use rights for overseas Vietnamese.

Many experts believe that this facilitation will avoid overseas Vietnamese asking others to stand in their names, which then leads to disputes.

From now on, overseas Vietnamese can easily buy houses in Vietnam.

Ngoc Duong

Clause 3 and Clause 6, Article 4 of the 2024 Land Law on "Land users" stipulate that land users who are allocated land, leased land, or have their land use rights recognized by the State; are using land stably, are eligible for a certificate of land use rights, ownership of assets attached to land but have not been granted a certificate by the State..., including: domestic individuals, Vietnamese people residing abroad who are Vietnamese citizens; people of Vietnamese origin residing abroad.

Limit disputes from occurring

Thus, regarding overseas Vietnamese, or commonly known as overseas Vietnamese, there will be two groups of subjects recognized by the 2024 Land Law to be granted land use right certificates when meeting the conditions of "overseas Vietnamese who are Vietnamese citizens" and "people of Vietnamese origin residing abroad". Mr. Nguyen Van Hau, Deputy Head of the Ho Chi Minh City Bar Association, assessed that the provisions of the new Land Law, along with the Housing and Real Estate Business Law that will take effect from 2025, will create more favorable conditions for overseas Vietnamese to invest and buy houses in Vietnam. "According to current law, overseas Vietnamese are allowed to buy houses in Vietnam. However, the difficulty is that the complicated procedures and documents to prove Vietnamese origin have discouraged overseas Vietnamese. Therefore, many overseas Vietnamese have chosen to ask relatives to stand in their names when buying real estate in the country. This has also led to disputes and lawsuits in some cases when there are problems or incidents in the family. Along with that, many investors are also confused when they do not know whether their projects are allowed to be sold to overseas Vietnamese or not, because this needs to be approved by management agencies," Mr. Hau shared and said that clear regulations in the 2024 Land Law will be a premise for the Government to guide judicial agencies to create conditions for people to prove their Vietnamese origin more simply.

What are the prerequisites?

Lawyer Truong Anh Tu ( Hanoi Bar Association) said that for the group of "Vietnamese people residing abroad are Vietnamese citizens", it is necessary to understand what "Vietnamese citizens" are. Specifically, Clause 1, Article 5 of the Nationality Law states that "people with Vietnamese nationality are Vietnamese citizens". Thus, "Vietnamese people residing abroad are Vietnamese citizens" means "Vietnamese people residing abroad have Vietnamese nationality". According to the arrangement and regulations in Clause 3, Article 4 of the 2024 Land Law on land users, "Vietnamese people residing abroad are Vietnamese citizens" are classified together with the group of "domestic individuals" and collectively referred to as "individuals". This group of "individuals" enjoys the rights to use land according to the law, including the right to receive land conversion, the right to transfer, receive gifts, the right to inherit, etc. Thus, it can be understood that "Vietnamese people residing abroad are Vietnamese citizens" enjoy all the rights to use land like individuals in the country without being limited by conditions as before. "This is a new point that creates maximum conditions for Vietnamese people residing abroad to be Vietnamese citizens, giving them the opportunity to return to Vietnam to live in the future. Accordingly, to enjoy these rights, they must prove that they are "Vietnamese citizens", meaning they have Vietnamese nationality through documents such as a certificate of Vietnamese nationality, or a passport showing Vietnamese nationality...", lawyer Tu emphasized. Second, for the group of "people of Vietnamese origin residing abroad", lawyer Tu analyzed according to Clause 4, Article 3 of the Nationality Law, people of Vietnamese origin residing abroad (hereinafter referred to as "people of Vietnamese origin") are Vietnamese people who once had Vietnamese nationality, whose nationality was determined at birth according to the principle of bloodline and whose children and grandchildren are residing and living permanently abroad. The 2024 Land Law allows people of Vietnamese origin to use land in some cases. Specifically, at point h, clause 1, article 28 stipulates that "Overseas Vietnamese people who are allowed to enter Vietnam are allowed to buy, lease-purchase houses attached to land use rights, receive land use rights in housing development projects; inherit land use rights and other types of land on the same plot of land with houses according to the provisions of the law on civil affairs; receive houses attached to land use rights as gifts from people in the line of inheritance according to the provisions of the law on civil affairs". At the same time, according to clause c, article 28 of the 2024 Land Law, people of Vietnamese origin are allowed to receive transfers of land use rights in industrial parks, industrial clusters, and high-tech zones. Lawyer Tu commented that one of the mandatory conditions for people of Vietnamese origin to have the right to use land and own houses according to the above regulations is that they must be allowed to "enter Vietnam"; procedures and documents proving Vietnamese origin. Meanwhile, Article 33 of Decree 16/2020/ND-CP requires people applying for a certificate of Vietnamese origin to provide documents to prove that they are of Vietnamese origin. This leads to cases where people applying for procedures do not have enough documents to prove, leading to travel expenses and a lot of time, as well as difficulties in collecting old documents that have been lost or misplaced for many years. According to Mr. Tu, in this case, the law should have some mechanism to create more favorable conditions or support people in collecting lost or misplaced documents. Once again, Mr. Tu affirmed that the 2024 Land Law has greatly expanded the rights to use land and the rights to own houses attached to land for overseas Vietnamese. However, implementing these regulations in practice is a big problem. Not all provisions of the law can be easily implemented because there are still problems with administrative procedures and practical implementation by state agencies and competent organizations. Therefore, Mr. Tu believes that there should be a separate decree, instructions, and detailed regulations on procedures and conditions to make it easier for people of Vietnamese origin to own real estate in Vietnam.

Many overseas Vietnamese want to return home to settle down.

At a conference on home buying for foreigners and overseas Vietnamese in 2023, Mr. Peter Hong, Chairman of the Association of Vietnamese Entrepreneurs Abroad, said that many overseas Vietnamese want to return home to settle down and invest but do not know how to own real estate. According to him, there are about 5.5 million overseas Vietnamese and more than 1 million F2, F3 generations whose parents or grandparents are Vietnamese. Of these, more than 20% are at retirement age, most of whom want to return to their homeland to live, invest, and stay close to their roots in their final years. A survey by the Ho Chi Minh City Real Estate Club (HREC) showed that about 3 million overseas Vietnamese want to own real estate when returning to Vietnam to live, of which the majority choose Ho Chi Minh City. According to the latest data from the State Bank, in 2023, the amount of remittances flowing to Ho Chi Minh City will reach a record high of 9.46 billion USD, an increase of 43% compared to 2022 and accounting for more than half of the total remittances nationwide. Compared to the total foreign direct investment (FDI) in the city in 2023, the amount of remittances is 2.7 times higher and equal to about 14% of the gross regional domestic product (GRDP).

Thanhnien.vn

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