Vietnam Land Law 2024 and Housing Law 2023: What Changed for Foreign Buyers

On January 1, 2025, Vietnam's largest property law overhaul in a decade came into full effect. Three statutes — the Law on Housing 2023, the Land Law 2024, and the Law on Real Estate Business 2023 — were synchronized for the first time, replacing a fragmented legal framework that had created significant uncertainty for both developers and buyers.

Here's what actually changed for foreign buyers, and what the implementing regulation Decree 95/2024/ND-CP adds.

What the Three Laws Are and When They Apply

Law on Housing 2023 (No. 27/2023/QH15): Governs residential property ownership rights for all buyers, including foreigners and overseas Vietnamese. Sets the 50-year leasehold framework for foreign individuals, codifies the one-time renewal right, establishes the 30% building cap, and defines who qualifies for expanded rights.

Land Law 2024 (No. 31/2023/QH15): Replaces the Land Law 2013. Governs land use rights (LURs) and their certificates. The most significant change for Viet Kieu: overseas Vietnamese citizens with valid Vietnamese passports now receive full parity with domestic citizens for all land rights — including agricultural land and bare land allocations — for the first time.

Law on Real Estate Business 2023 (No. 29/2023/QH15): Governs how property is transacted. Introduced the 5% deposit cap for off-plan sales, mandatory bank guarantees for developers, and banned individual (unlicensed) brokers from operating independently. Also clarified condotel legal status.

Decree 95/2024/ND-CP: The implementing regulation that operationalizes the Housing Law 2023. Clarifies the block-by-block application of the 30% foreign cap for multi-tower projects, sets procedural requirements for Viet Kieu transactions, and establishes the criteria under which the People's Committee reviews leasehold extension applications.

Key Changes That Affect Foreign Buyers

1. The Renewal Right Is Now Codified

Under the Housing Law 2014, the mechanism for extending a foreign buyer's 50-year term was vague and subject to local administrative interpretation. The Housing Law 2023 explicitly codifies:

• Foreign individual owners have a single extension right of up to 50 additional years
• Total maximum tenure: 100 years
• Application must be filed at least three months before expiry to the provincial People's Committee
• The Committee must respond within 30 days

This doesn't change the underlying structure — the 50-year limit remains — but it removes the ambiguity about whether an extension was even legally available.

2. The 30% Cap Applies Block-by-Block

Under the previous framework, the 30% foreign cap was sometimes interpreted as applying to an entire multi-block project rather than individual towers. Decree 95/2024/ND-CP closes this ambiguity: where a development contains multiple blocks sharing a common structural podium or basement, the 30% cap is applied to each block individually.

This partially reopened previously "saturated" projects. Blocks where the foreign quota hadn't been reached became viable for new SPA purchases, even if other blocks in the same development were already at capacity.

3. The 5% Off-Plan Deposit Cap

The Law on Real Estate Business 2023 introduced a hard limit: developers can collect a maximum of 5% of the total contract price as a deposit or reservation fee before signing a legally compliant SPA. Under the previous regime, developers routinely collected 20% to 50% via informal "capital contribution agreements" before securing basic planning approvals.

This protects buyers from committing large capital to projects that haven't yet received required permits.

4. Mandatory Bank Guarantees for Off-Plan Sales

Before selling any off-plan unit (apartments, villas, condotels), developers must now secure a bank guarantee from a licensed commercial bank. If the developer defaults or fails to hand over the property on schedule, the guarantor bank is legally required to refund all advanced payments to buyers.

The same law grants buyers the right to waive this guarantee in writing. Developers typically pass the guarantee cost (1% to 2% of the transaction value) to buyers, so some buyers waive it to reduce upfront costs when purchasing from demonstrably solvent developers. This is a decision that requires careful due diligence, not a default assumption.

5. Professionalization of Brokers

The Law on Real Estate Business 2023 banned individuals from providing brokerage services under their own names. All agents must now operate under a licensed brokerage firm and hold a formal professional practicing certificate from the Ministry of Construction. This reduces (though doesn't eliminate) the risk of dealing with unlicensed middlemen who misrepresent quota availability, project legal status, or pricing.

6. Enhanced Information Disclosure Requirements

Article 6 of the Real Estate Business Law 2023 requires developers to publicly disclose all primary project documentation on the national housing information system before marketing. This disclosure must include:

• The approved 1:500 master planning decision
• Land allocation clearances
• Construction permits
• Model contract templates

In practice, enforcement remains uneven — but the legal requirement now exists, and failure to comply gives buyers grounds to void a contract.

What Didn't Change

The constitutional framework is unchanged. Land remains state property. Foreigners still cannot hold freehold title. The 50-year term limit for foreign individual buyers remains. The restriction to commercial residential projects (not raw land) is unchanged for foreign nationals. The prohibition on properties in national defense and security zones is unchanged and now explicitly referenced in Decree 95/2024.

Regarding national defense zone properties: these areas are defined and updated by the Ministry of National Defense and Ministry of Public Security. Developers sometimes sell units in these zones before the restriction is formally communicated to the provincial Department of Construction — which then refuses to register the Pink Book. The buyer's only recourse is a slow administrative appeal. Verifying that a project has received explicit written clearance from the Department of Construction is a mandatory pre-purchase step.

What to Do With This Information

The 2023-2024 legislative cycle made Vietnam's property market materially better for foreign buyers in specific ways: codified renewal rights, stronger deposit protection, mandatory bank guarantees, and cleaner condotel classification. But the fundamental structure — time-limited state-administered land rights, quota constraints, and extensive developer due diligence requirements — is unchanged.

The practical implication: the protections now exist in law, but you have to proactively invoke them. Withhold the 5% final payment pending Pink Book delivery. Verify the bank guarantee independently. Confirm the project has DoC clearance for foreign sales. These rights don't enforce themselves.

A full breakdown of the current purchase process under these laws is in the Vietnam Foreigner's Buying Guide.

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