New Vietnam Home Ownership Law

In Nha Trang we were told this province does not allow a foreigner to be listed on the pink book for land and/or home purchases.  The fact that I am married to a Vietnamese citizen and have a temporary residence card made absolutely no difference.

As Mark just shows in his post, its basically up to officials in each provence.

I read in Saigon Daily in December of an Australian couple buying a house under the new rule, both were foreigners, but think they were affluent as they already owned a condo in Quang 7 when they bought their free standing house in Quang 9.

Interesting. I hope there are more inputs. I am a bit dubious about any law here. Not sure I would want to hang a bunch of money on the crap shoot that the law may apply, or it may not. Again thanks.

As some replies so far have shown, any regulations in Vietnam -- especially relatively new ones like this about foreign home ownership -- are opaque at best, and always frustratingly inconsistent between provinces and even departments within them. Coffee money can help.

You could use an agent, which costs a bit but can be quite helpful (they'll take care of the coffee money and enlist their cousin twice removed), or do it by yourself much more cheaply with lots of running into walls.

I did the latter with my local driving licence. It took a lot of time (fortunately I had that) and it became a sport in the end :-) You need a sense of humour and "Asian patience" (bring lots of reading material, and never turn up at lunchtime). You learn so much along the way...

Sorry I can't be more helpful. Good luck!

I did the latter with my local driving licence. It took a lot of time (fortunately I had that) and it became a sport in the end :-) You need a sense of humour and "Asian patience" (bring lots of reading material, and never turn up at lunchtime). You learn so much along the way...

Seems like this is quite a sport ! 
I thought the 'coffee money' would have helped a fair bit.. or do they require donuts or biscuits with their coffee 

In Asia is common to run backwards and forwards... it keeps you quite fit but at same time canprove to be very frustrating.!! 

I have heard that the Central Government is dragging it's heels on this issue and has not yet produced the guidelines to allow foreigners to purchase. They seem to be a little concerned with foreign speculators pushing up prices, especially investors from China. This law was supposed to be in force in July 2015.

tunnelrat69 wrote:

I read in Saigon Daily in December of an Australian couple buying a house under the new rule, both were foreigners, but think they were affluent as they already owned a condo in Quang 7 when they bought their free standing house in Quang 9.

It would be interesting to see if they have got the red book, we bought our apartment in Da Nang in 2015 and still haven't got the red book yet.

I rather assumed this was the way it was going to turn out. Another vote for investing in Vietnam anyone when you only have tourist status. Laws in a lawless society still make it a lawless society . Heck I never have a clue from one visa renewal to the next what their interpretation of the rules are going to be. Then I would want to buy a home for in someones eases name. Heck can't even buy a motorbike in may name. Nothing agains any of it. For me renting is far far better and much cheaper. Use the money to buy a hone where you can own it have your name own the titled have protection in the courts. But rent here.

As I've bought and sell 4 houses in last 5 years in Canada I was seriously looking into buying a house in Vietnam. My niece works as a real estate agent.

Did they do away with that foreigner can only lease house for 40 years or so crap?

Laws keep changing in Vietnam. Too much headache dealing with the beauracracy in Vietnam. Takes over 10 trips and 2 weeks just to get a Vietnamese birth certificate for my 2nd child in Vietnam!

House buying is not centralized like here in Canada where you can just go on realtor dot com and make your offer. Lawyer takes care of the rest. In Vietnam I found it difficult to find the houses/land I want. Than you have to do your own paperwork.

The many times I've been at the government offices because they like to nit pick 1 mistake at a time I've witnessed local Vietnamese having to argue with the land registry office workers. I've even witnessed numerous bribes disguised as wedding invitations.

I've seen some have the house and land taken away because they want to do a big housing development. And than there are ones where locals are left in limbo for years on rumours there are plans for housing development in their area and the land loses value or no one wants to buy it.

It's too risky to buy land in Vietnam as a foreigner. Vietnamese lawyers aren't much help. They can pin any accusations on us to take away our land without recourse.

If they want foreigners buying land they need to gain our confidence not impede it.

Spot on Khanh44. Not sure they are all that thrilled to have foreigners buy anything. They worry that they will come and buy up everything I think. Hanoi will always keep close tabs on the process of becoming more Westernized I think. Wish I could count the properties that Ha Noi came and stopped construction on after the permit were issued to build. Had you been the investor will to get rich on those types of deals you may have been wiped out. People on this thread have said they have done their homework on TPP and other economic stimulators. But have they done their research on the vagaries of government offices here, or the fact you can not get property appraised here to learn of it's true value, or that the true owner is no the guy selling it to you?

I can look off my balcony and see eight 20-something floor apartments in process and 1 big multi-story mall being built.

So, someone must be buying.

Who's buyin what here ??

They don't care about the end product.  It's all about making money in the construction faze. 

I'm looking off my balcony too, and can see 4300 apartments in one project here in Nha Trang.  AND there are dozens of similar projects underway all over the place here.   
But guess what.....it's all for flippers & speculators.   Most of the projects in VN are sold to flippers.   

A hell of a lot of these places never get finished, & if by some miracle they do, they are NOT compliant with the original plans and the toilet paper "ownership deeds" are not issued. As you are aware this happens a lot.

It's all a game.    I've previously been involved with shonky developers before back home.    It's a similar deal here , but sleazier.

The "game" consists of Bank Managers, developers, and Govt staff....all shitty , dirty , grubby little schmucks.

The shitty developer , goes to the shitty Bank guy and asks for A few million $$ to build an apartment block in exchange for a kick back . So the bank guy now  has his retirement plan sewn up.

The developers "grease" the corrupt shitty Govt guys for the permits and plans to be approved.    Then the developers  thru cronyism & nepotism give the trade subcontracted work to hillbilly relatives who then  do the cheapest , shittiest job they can with the budget they've been given......AND POCKET THE DIFFERENCE.

That's why these places are poor quality dumps.  They are built by hillbillys using the cheapest crap they can find.   The "buyers" are flippers , resellers whatever...who try to offload their units before they have even got legal "ownership" .    Last guy in gets burnt.   

That 4300 unit complex I'm looking at has "apparently" all been sold. BUT hardly any of the buyers have any intention of living in it OR fitting it out for rental.   

End results, the Banks are sitting on high levels of NPL non performing loans ( toxic debt)  secured by crumbling piles of shit grade concrete .
What they have built will be slums in a few years and have to be knocked down.   

People are asking $3000 a sq meter for a house block here in Nha Trang.    I can get a fully serviced block back in Australia , near the beach on the Sunshine Coast nth of Brisbane for $400 a metre.  Average wage in Australia is $72,000 a year.   Average wage in Vietnam is less than $2000 a year.   Something is seriously fucked up.

Sooner or later the bubble will burst and it won't be pretty. 

How did that " sub prime" mortgage market go a few years ago in the states.   Triggered a few problems didn't it.😆

And the Vietnamese are finally getting they're heads around the 4th Industrial revolution.   That will hit them like a ton of bricks.   All they have to offer is cheap "UNSKILLED" labour,,,,,,which won't be needed in such volumes.   They don't create, invent, add value, innovate etc....they just ASSEMBLE things from set simple instructions.    Eg...Samsung send all the components here to be assembled and shipped off to foreign markets.      They are only committed here for another 4 years.   Robots will be doing that in the future , but not on VN soil.   And the VN govt guys are worried that when the Multi Nationals start downsizing and leaving they are taking the Intellectual property with them. They'll leave nothing behind ,,,only worn out leased , out of date sewing machines and industrial sweat shop sheds.

Vietnam will be an interesting place to be in about 4 years time,,,most of these high rise projects will  highly likely be stalled, and when Industry 4 kicks in the economy could take a big hit.....let's see if that "pops" the property bubble.

Be very careful about buying property here.  As you are aware, there are numerous threads here and countless stories of foreigners being stitched up on property "deals" here.   

Rent everything here, it's so f&cking cheap....including the women.   Can't go wrong.

Yogi has always had the following survival theory here.  It's all about steering clear the  5 Bs

Babies, Brides, Businesses, Broke expats & Booze.

It's how you manage those that will shape your life here..

Years ago I went out with a girl in Saigon, who, like many others had placed a 200 million deposit on an apartment. The apartment was never built, and the developers hightailed it back to Ha Noi. The police informed the  prospective buyers that they couldnt do anything due to the developers being from a prominent family,and were untouchable. The developers made billions, whilst the buyers were left with a debt.

Yep.....it's a dicey place to do business.  I've found it a great place to live provided I don't touch anything. 😆

Yogi007 wrote:

The "game" consists of Bank Managers, developers, and Govt staff....all shitty , dirty , grubby little schmucks. .

Shakespeare would be proud of your prose.

It isn't very clear from your post but  I think you're trying to say the quality is in question and the buildings are a less than desirable proposition for someone looking for a home.
Is that correct?

I am just tru shocked and disappointed. I thought the world was rushing here to make a ton of bucks in the high quality infatductue, the state of the are building techinuques and the chance to quadruple your money by the time the ink dries in the contract your unable to enforce. I think I will continue to rent from the landlord that built it for a million bucks and rents it to me for $500. Heck that is a cap rate for him if .006%. With a return your money like that I can see why the world is rushing
Here to buy
  I am so disappointed I missed out!!!!

Fred wrote:

Yogi007 wrote:

The "game" consists of Bank Managers, developers, and Govt staff....all shitty , dirty , grubby little schmucks. .

Shakespeare would be proud of your prose.

It isn't very clear from your post but  I think you're trying to say the quality is in question and the buildings are a less than desirable proposition for someone looking for a home.
Is that correct?

Mmmm........yeah.   Good to see a few here that can read between the lines.🤓

I'm old school when it comes to making , fixing or building things.   
Do it once..do it right.   

If you want a "cheap" job in the long run that's how you do it.   Build it to last.   This crew haven't figured that out yet., and it's coming back to bite them.

They've recently had their borrowing rates lifted internationally since they now claim to be a middle class country....🤓🤓. That's going to bite.  A lot of the infrastructure is funded by foreign borrowing and instead of building quality roads , the hillbilly contractors use half measures of road base, bitumen etc purely to pocket as much of the allocated budget as possible.   New parts of the highway around here are already potholes and subsidence.    All that money wasted.   

It's in their DNA.....they simply HAVE to find a way of cheating and rorting on any task, job or project they are assigned to.   They're only cheating themselves in the long run.

yeah digging up river sand and re-selling it was a brilliant idea. Well not for the home owners.

Years ago I went out with a girl in Saigon, who, like many others had placed a 200 million deposit on an apartment. The apartment was never built, and the developers hightailed it back to Ha Noi. The police informed the  prospective buyers that they couldnt do anything due to the developers being from a prominent family,and were untouchable. The developers made billions, whilst the buyers were left with a debt.

Thats quite a bit of their hard earned bucks to loose! its beyond me how these cowboys of developers can sleep at night!!