Foreign house buyer number far behind expectations
The Housing Law 2014 permitting foreigners to buy houses in Vietnam has been expected to heat up the real estate market with an increase of foreign house buyers. However it has not been as expected because of many reasons.
Among them is that decrees and circulars guiding implementation of the Housing and Real Estate Laws have not been issued.
Deputy chairman of the Committee for Oversea Vietnamese Affairs (COVA) in HCMC Tran Hoai Phuong proposed authorized agencies to simplify procedures and provide transparent database to improve the condition.
The Ministry of Construction and the State Bank of Vietnam should ensure the rights of foreign house buyers, facilitating money transfer into their accounts when they resell properties, he suggested.
According to statistics by lawyer Nguyen Van Hau from the HCMC Lawyer Delegation, about 400 oversea Vietnamese and foreigners bought houses in Vietnam in the period of 2009-2014.
Guidance for Law on Real Estate Business in pipeline
Documents guiding the Law on Real Estate Business, which took effect in July 1, are expected to be issued sometime this month, according to Mr. Nguyen Trong Ninh, Deputy Head of the Housing and Real Estate Market Management Agency under the Ministry of Construction (MoC).
The content of the documents were completed by the agency at MoC’s direction and have been submitted to the Prime Minister, Mr. Ninh was quoted as saying.
Their official issue will create the legal framework to support the sustainable and vibrant development of Vietnam’s real estate market, he added.
Including specific content regulating detailed procedures and conditions, the documents will help businesses and homebuyers complete housing transactions in compliance with the law.
The Amended Law on Real Estate Business took effect on July 1 and contains important amendments on the rights of key players in the real estate market compared to the Law on Real Estate Business dated June 29, 2006. The rights of local organizations and individuals to conduct real estate business remain generally unchanged, according to the Vietnam International Law Firm (VILAF).
They continue to have the right to purchase houses/buildings and construction works for sale, lease or grant of hire-purchase, lease houses/buildings and construction works for sublease, and develop new projects. However, following the restructuring of the rights of land users with respect to different types of land use rights in the Land Law 2013, the new Law also restructures the corresponding development rights for each type of land use rights, VILAF said.
For overseas Vietnamese and foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs), beside the right to develop new projects the new Law adds the right to sublease houses/buildings and construction works that are already developed. Overseas Vietnamese and FIEs, however, have different rights in the development of new projects. Since overseas Vietnamese and FIEs do not have access to certain types of land, their rights to develop new projects are also narrower than those of local organizations and
