III. Conditions under which foreigners and foreign organizations conduct real estate business in Vietnam
1. Conditions for real estate business of foreigners and foreign organizations (foreign investors):
- Being an investor from a WTO member country or a country that has a free trade agreement with Vietnam without restriction from trading in real estate (general provisions);
- Must establish an enterprise in Vietnam with real estate business and real estate service business in accordance with business objectives and purposes. Real estate services that foreign-invested enterprises are allowed to do business in include: real estate brokerage, real estate trading floor, real estate consulting, real estate management.
- Prohibiting transfer land use rights in the form of “selling alloted land”;
- Prohibiting buying houses, constructions for sublease.
2. Conditions for real estate to be put into business:
2.1 Houses, constructions put into business must fully meet the following conditions:
- Having registered ownership of houses and construction works attached to land in the certificate of land use right. For existing houses and construction works in real estate investment and business projects, only a certificate of land use rights is required in accordance with the provisions of the law on land;
- There is no dispute over land use rights, ownership of houses and construction works attached to the land;
- Not being distrained to ensure judgment enforcement.
2.2 Types of land permitted to trade in land use rights must fully satisfy the following conditions:
- Having a certificate of land use rights in accordance with the law on land;
- No dispute over land use rights;
- Land use rights are not distrained to secure judgment enforcement;
- During the land use period.
IV. Scope of foreign individuals and organizations to conduct real estate business in Vietnam
As mentioned above, foreign organizations and individuals doing real estate business must establish a business and have a business line suitable to the intended business purpose. In addition, foreign-invested enterprises established by foreigners or foreign organizations have the scope of real estate business activities within the following limits:
- Leasing houses and constructions for sublease;
- For land leased by the State, it is allowed to invest in the construction of houses for lease; invest in the construction of houses and constructions other than houses for sale, lease, or lease-purchase;
- For land leased from organizations, households and individuals, they may invest in building houses and constructions for lease according to the right land use purposes;
- Receive transfer of the whole or part of real estate project of the investor to build houses, construction works for sale, lease, lease purchase.
- For land allocated by the State, it is allowed to invest in building houses for sale, lease, or lease-purchase.
Some additional notes on house ownership rights of foreigner and foreign organizations:
- Foreign individuals, organizations, foreign-invested enterprises may not receive direct transfer of land use rights in Vietnam (Article 169.1 of Land Law 2013);
- Foreigners, foreign-invested enterprises, branches, representative offices of foreign enterprises, foreign investment funds and branches of foreign banks operating in Vietnam but not in the school. Investment in housing construction under projects is allowed to own houses in investment projects to build commercial houses in Vietnam, except for areas ensuring national defense and security as prescribed by Vietnamese law. But these entities will be limited in term of ownership and number of houses owned in the project;
- For foreigners, they are allowed to use and exercise the same rights as the Vietnamese individual owners or lease them to others for the right purposes permitted by law;
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For foreign-invested enterprises, branches, representative offices of foreign enterprises, foreign investment funds and foreign bank branches currently operating in Vietnam, only residential houses may be used. to arrange for people who are working at that organization to stay, not to use the house for rent, office or other purposes.
Disclaimer: This article is for general information only and is not a substitute for legal advice. Apolat Legal is a Vietnamese law firm with experience and capacity to advise on matters related to Real Estate . Please click here to learn more about our services and contact our lawyers in Vietnam for advice via email info@apolatlegal.com.