DANANG VILLA REALTY

Can foreigners buy houses in Vietnam? According to Article 159 of the Housing Law, foreigners buying houses in Vietnam must meet the following conditions: Subjects of foreigners who own houses in Vietnam:

• Foreign individuals invest in building houses according to projects in Vietnam.
• Foreign individuals allowed to enter Vietnam.

Forms of owning houses in Vietnam:

• Investing in building houses according to projects in Vietnam;
• Buying, leasing, receiving as gifts, inheriting commercial houses including apartments and individual houses in investment projects to build houses, except for areas ensuring national defense and security as prescribed by the Government. This is guided in Clause 2, Article 76 of Decree 99/2015/NĐ-CP, specifically organizations and individuals eligible to own houses in Vietnam are only allowed to buy, lease, or rent houses from the project developer whose project does not belong to the area ensuring national defense and security or buy back houses from organizations and individuals who are foreigners have owned houses in Vietnam as regulated in point b, Clause 4, Article 7 of Decree 99/2015/NĐ-CP. Thus, the project developer (except for projects in the area ensuring national defense and security) and organizations and individuals who are foreigners and have owned houses in Vietnam have the need to sell houses before the expiration of ownership are allowed to sell houses to foreigners.

Sale and purchase contract for foreigners The contract about housing is agreed upon by the parties and must be made in writing, including the following basic contents:

• Full names and addresses of the parties;
• Description of the characteristics of the transaction housing;
• Transaction price of the house if the contract agrees on the price; in case of purchase, lease, or lease-purchase of housing, if the State has regulations on prices, the parties must comply with those regulations;
• Duration and method of payment;
• Time of handover of the house; warranty period; rental period, lease-purchase period, etc.;
• Rights and obligations of the parties;
• Commitments of the parties;
• Effective time of the contract;
• Other agreements. According to the regulations in Clause 1, Article 122 of the Housing Law, in case of purchase, transfer of commercial housing sale and purchase contracts must be notarized, authenticated; except for cases not requiring notarization, authentication as prescribed in Clause 2 of this Article. The effective time of the contract is the time the contract is notarized, authenticated. The notarization of the housing contract is carried out at the notary practice organization; the authentication of the housing contract is carried out at the People's Committee of the commune where the house is located.

Procedures for selling houses to foreigners Step 1: Prepare necessary documents For project developers:

• Business registration certificate, including real estate business lines;
• Investment license, investment approval document;
• Land use right certificate of the entire project land area;
• Documents related to fulfilling tax obligations and financial obligations of the project developer;
• Construction permit and other permits related to construction;
• Project dossier, approved construction design drawings;
• Completed foundation acceptance minutes, warranty contract, documents permitting sale, lease-purchase from competent state agencies for sale, lease-purchase of future-formed housing. For foreigners:
• Valid passport with stamped entry stamp by Vietnamese immigration authorities;
• Visa for entry into Vietnam valid (ensure that the signing time of the sale and purchase contract must be within the valid period of the visa) or Certificate of visa exemption for foreigners with spouses, children who are Vietnamese citizens, or Vietnamese residing abroad.