Real Estate Law · 12.10.2026

Buying Property in Vietnam as a Foreigner: What You Can Own, For How Long, and Why Nominee Deals Fail

A foreign individual permitted to enter Vietnam may own a house in Vietnam, but only a commercial dwelling inside a licensed housing project, only up to...

Lawyer UnilawReading time: 8 min

By Lawyer Luu Thi Hue – UniLaw LLC

The short answer

A foreign individual permitted to enter Vietnam may own a house in Vietnam, but only a commercial dwelling inside a licensed housing project, only up to 30 per cent of the apartments in any one building or 250 landed houses in any ward-sized area, and only for 50 years, renewable once for up to 50 more. You never acquire the land. Land use rights are not granted to foreign individuals at all, so there is no red book in your name, only a house ownership certificate with an expiry date written on it. Marry a Vietnamese citizen living in Vietnam and the limits fall away: you hold the same rights as a Vietnamese owner. And if you are tempted to put the property in a Vietnamese friend's name instead, read the case below first.

Who is eligible

Article 17, Clause 1 of Law on Housing No. 27/2023/QH15:

Foreign organizations and individuals entitled to own housing in Vietnam include: (a) foreign-invested economic organizations investing in housing construction projects in Vietnam; (b) foreign-invested economic organizations, branches and representative offices of foreign enterprises, foreign investment funds and branches of foreign banks operating in Vietnam; (c) foreign individuals permitted to enter Vietnam.

Article 18, Clause 3 adds the disqualifier for individuals: you must not be a person entitled to diplomatic or consular privileges and immunities. Diplomats cannot buy. Article 18, Clause 2 requires a foreign organization to hold a valid investment registration certificate or equivalent operating licence at the moment the housing contract is signed. An expired licence at signing voids eligibility, not just the paperwork.

What you can buy, and where

Article 17, Clause 2, Point b restricts the acquisition channel:

Organizations and individuals specified at Points b and c of Clause 1 of this Article may own housing by purchasing or hire-purchasing commercial housing from the investor of a housing construction project, or by receiving a gift or inheritance of commercial housing in a housing construction project not located in an area requiring the assurance of national defence and security.

Three consequences people miss. First, you cannot buy a house from a Vietnamese individual on the open market. The seller must be the project developer, or a foreign owner who bought from that developer under the same provision. Second, the project must be on the provincial list of projects open to foreign ownership. Article 16 requires the Ministry of National Defence and the Ministry of Public Security to notify defence and security zones, and the provincial People's Committee to publish the permitted project list on its portal. Check that list before you pay a deposit, not after. Third, a gift or inheritance of a property outside these rules does not transfer. Under Article 20, Clause 2, Point b you receive only the monetary value.

The quota

Article 19, Clause 1:

Foreign organizations and individuals may only purchase, hire-purchase, receive as a gift, inherit and own no more than 30 per cent of the apartments in one apartment building; in the case of landed housing including villas and terraced houses, no more than 250 houses in an area with a population size equivalent to one ward.

Developers track this. If the building has reached 30 per cent foreign ownership, your contract cannot be registered, whatever the sales agent told you. Ask for the project's current foreign ownership count in writing before signing.

The term

Article 20, Clause 2, Point c:

A foreign individual may own housing as agreed in the purchase, hire-purchase, gift or inheritance transaction, but not exceeding 50 years from the date of issuance of the Certificate, extendable once for a term not exceeding 50 years if required; the ownership term must be clearly stated in the Certificate.

The same provision carries the exception that changes everything: a foreign individual married to a Vietnamese citizen living in Vietnam owns the housing and holds the rights of an owner as a Vietnamese citizen. No 50-year clock, no quota.

Point đ of the same clause is the trap at the far end. Before the term expires the owner may sell or gift the house to an eligible party. Miss that window and the house becomes public property. Not compensated, not extended by application after the fact.

The case that shows what a nominee really buys

In 1989 a buyer moved from northern Vietnam to Ho Chi Minh City and found a house advertised for sale in a newspaper. He agreed a price of 55 taels of gold with the owners, paid a cash deposit, then travelled north to raise the balance. On 19 November 1989 he handed over the remaining 42 taels. The house was transferred to him the following day.

He had no Ho Chi Minh City household registration, so he could not be registered as the purchaser. He asked an acquaintance to sign the sale document in her name. The construction office struck his name from the deed because the two were not married and he had not signed it. On 11 November 1989 the district People's Committee issued the transfer permit in her name alone. She paid the transfer tax, took possession, and in 1993 rebuilt the house from one storey to three.

By September 1990 he had discovered the title was hers and had begun petitioning the authorities. Litigation followed. An appellate judgment in 2013 annulled the first trial court decision and directed further evidence gathering. First-Instance Judgment No. 203/2016/DS-ST dated 7 March 2016 case.unilaw.vn of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Court then refused to recognise his ownership, confirmed the title holder as owner, and ordered her to repay the value of 42 taels of gold, 1,416,660,000 Vietnamese dong. All three sides appealed. In Appellate Judgment No. 785/2023/DS-PT dated 21 November 2023 case.unilaw.vn the High People's Court in Ho Chi Minh City annulled that judgment too, on the ground that ordering repayment exceeded what the claimant had actually asked for, and remanded the case for a fresh first-instance trial.

Thirty-four years. Three rounds. Still no owner. The registered title holder kept possession throughout.

Vietnamese courts reach the same result where a company pays and an individual holds title. In Appellate Judgment No. 47/2021/KDTM-PT dated 24 November 2021 case.unilaw.vn the High People's Court in Ho Chi Minh City upheld First-Instance Judgment No. 109/2020/KDTM-ST dated 15 January 2021 case.unilaw.vn and refused to recognise a company's ownership of a house in Binh Thanh District that its own member held in his name, even though the company produced a signed nominee agreement. A forensic examination found the critical wording had been printed into the loan documents after signature, and the court treated the money as a loan to the member, not a purchase for the company. The person on the certificate owned the house.

The pattern is consistent: Vietnamese law protects the registered holder. A nominee arrangement buys you litigation, not property.

Payment, tenancy and tax

Article 21, Clause 2, Point c of Law on Housing No. 27/2023/QH15 requires payment of the purchase or hire-purchase price through a credit institution or a branch of a foreign bank operating in Vietnam. Cash across a table leaves you with no admissible payment trail and no documented basis for repatriating the proceeds on resale.

Point a of the same clause lets a foreign individual lease the house out, but requires written notice to the district housing authority before letting, plus tax on the rental income. A foreign organization gets no such right. Under Point b it may use the house only to accommodate its own staff.

Five controls before you pay a deposit

Confirm the project is on the published list. Provincial portal, in writing, before the deposit.

Get the foreign ownership count. The 30 per cent and 250-house caps are hard limits, and the developer knows the current figure.

Read the term on the draft certificate. Fifty years from issuance of the Certificate, not from handover and not from contract date.

Pay through a Vietnamese bank account. Required by statute and the only workable basis for taking money out later.

Never use a nominee. Not a spouse you are not married to, not a friend, not a company. The certificate decides.

How UniLaw helps

We verify eligibility and project status before deposit, review developer sale and purchase agreements and hire-purchase contracts, handle certificate applications and ownership term extensions, and act in ownership disputes including nominee and inheritance claims.

Sources

First-Instance Judgment No. 203/2016/DS-ST dated 7 March 2016 (Ho Chi Minh City People's Court) / Appellate Judgment No. 785/2023/DS-PT dated 21 November 2023 (High People's Court in Ho Chi Minh City) – house ownership dispute, 1989 nominee purchase, 55 taels of gold, first-instance judgment annulled for exceeding the claim, remanded for retrial after 34 years.
First-Instance Judgment No. 109/2020/KDTM-ST dated 15 January 2021 (Ho Chi Minh City People's Court) / Appellate Judgment No. 47/2021/KDTM-PT dated 24 November 2021 (High People's Court in Ho Chi Minh City) – company claim to a house held in a member's name rejected; forensic finding that nominee wording was printed in after signature.
Law on Housing No. 27/2023/QH15 – Article 16, Article 17 (Clauses 1, 2), Article 18 (Clauses 2, 3), Article 19 (Clause 1), Article 20 (Clause 2 Points b, c, đ), Article 21 (Clause 2 Points a, b, c).
Land Law No. 31/2024/QH15 – Article 4 (list of land users; foreign individuals not included).

Vietnam real estate lawyers — our practice covering acquisition, title due diligence and property disputes.
Industrial park leases in Vietnam — the commercial counterpart: leasing land and factories rather than owning a dwelling.
How courts weigh land use right certificate evidence — why the registered certificate decides ownership disputes.