The Minister of Construction has confirmed that they will make amendments to loosen foreign property ownership regulations in Vietnam this year.
Vietnam may finally lift the restrictions on foreign ownership of property
In 2009, a directive on the right to buy housing for foreigners in Vietnam was piloted for a five year period. However, the directive restricted foreigners to only being able to buy apartments if they were directly investing in the country or were employed by Vietnamese firms as managers.
Other foreigners who have at least a university degree or skills in a tightly restricted list of occupations, people married to a Vietnamese citizen or those are granted medals or certificates of merit from the President or Prime Minister could also qualify. Moreover, foreigners who wanted to buy housing in Vietnam also needed to be granted a residency permit.
According to An Ninh Thu Do Newspaper, there were about 320,000 foreigners registered for permanent and temporary stay for over three months in 2010.
Many experts said Vietnam has some of the tightest house ownership rules for foreigners in the world. Since the directive was issued, only 427 of 80,000 foreigners registered as living and working in Vietnam bothered to buy housing. This figure excludes overseas Vietnamese who bypass the regulation and use the name of their resident relatives.
Former governor of the State Bank of Vietnam Cao Si Kiem said the current system obviously wasn’t working so the rules restricting foreigners from owning homes in Vietnam would badly affect the property market liquidity.
In addition, many people proposed to extend the property rights for foreigners so they could sell or lease their houses.
A Korean investor in Ha Dong District suggested Vietnam simplify procedures to house ownership certification as it currently takes a ludicrous two years to process.
According to Pham Sy Liem, vice head of Vietnam Construction Association, Vietnam needs to loosen or remove the restrictions completely. "The government should be more decisive because it’s assumed that we’ll let foreigners own property in Vietnam sooner or later," Liem said.
Minister of Construction Trinh Dinh Dung admitted in the talk show on April 14 that there would be many benefits by amending the foreign ownership of property rules. "This is also a chance to rescue the real estate market." he said.
Deputy Minister of Construction Nguyen Tran Nam agreed, "We are calling for foreign investment yet our laws on foreign ownership of Vietnamese property is preventing them from living and working in Vietnam."
Nam said the new regulations should be loosened to direct customers to the high-end property market.
