Nowadays, it can be seen that in our country, especially in big cities, the number of foreigners choosing to come to our country to live and work is increasing day by day. At the same time, the demand for buying houses and land of these people is also increasing sharply. So do foreigners have the right to have their names on land use rights certificates in Vietnam?
What is land use rights certificate?
Pursuant to Clause 21, Article 3 of the 2024 Land Law, certificate of land use rights is a legal certificate for the State to certify lawful land use rights for a person holding land use rights. Therefore, it plays an important role in protecting the legitimate rights and interests of land users.
Land use rights of foreigners
Article 4 of the 2024 Land Law stipulates that:
“Article 4. Land users
Land users who are allocated land, leased land, have LURs recognized by the State; who are using land stably and are eligible for grant of certificates of title but have not yet been granted certificates of LURs, certificates of home ownership and LURs of homestead land, certificates of LURs and ownership of housing and other property affixed to land or certificates of title; who receive LURs; or who sublease land as prescribed by this Law include:
…
5. Foreign diplomatic organizations including diplomatic representative missions, consuls and other representative missions of foreign countries serving the function of diplomacy, which are recognized by the Government of Vietnam; representative missions of organizations affiliated to the United Nations, inter-governmental agencies or organizations, and representative missions of inter-governmental organizations.
6. Persons of Vietnamese descent residing overseas;
7. Foreign-invested business organizations.”
According to this provisions, foreigners who are people of Vietnamese origin are allocated land, leased land, and have land use rights recognized by the State; If you are using land stably and are eligible for a land use right certificate, you will be granted a land use right certificate.
Thus, for land use rights, foreigners who are not of Vietnamese origin will not be granted land use rights certificates.
Pursuant to Clause 1, Article 136 of the Land Law 2024, the People’s Committees of first-level administrative shall issue land use rights certificates to domestic individuals and Vietnamese people residing abroad who are Vietnamese citizens.
Houses ownership of foreigners
Article 17 of the 2023 Housing Law clearly states that foreign organizations and individuals entitled to house ownership and forms of house ownership in Vietnam are as follows:
“1. Foreign organizations and individuals entitled to house ownership in Vietnam include:
a/ Foreign-invested economic organizations that invest in house construction under projects in Vietnam in accordance with this Law and relevant regulations;
b/ Foreign-invested economic organizations, branches and representative offices of foreign enterprises, foreign investment funds, and foreign bank branches currently operating in Vietnam (below collectively referred to as foreign organizations).
c/ Foreign individuals permitted to enter Vietnam.”
Thus, foreigners may only be granted certificates for apartments and independent houses in housing construction investment projects.
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-Nguyen Huong Huyen-