The Ministry of Construction recently removed the regulations on the apartment ownership period in the draft housing law (amended) according to the opinion of the National Assembly Standing Committee.
The Ministry of Construction, which was responsible for drafting the Housing Law (amended), highlighted the aforementioned opinion in the explanatory report it just issued to National Assembly deputies after collecting their comments.
Attract foreign investors
The Ministry of Construction said that the policy to allow foreign organizations and individuals to buy and own houses in the country was stipulated in Resolution No. 19 in 2008 of the National Assembly.
According to the Ministry of Construction, Resolution No. 19 of the National Assembly from 2008 defined the policy allowing foreign businesses and individuals to buy and own houses in Vietnam.
The new draft (amended) Housing Law will retain the provisions of the 2014 Housing Law. These regulations will clarify the conditions for foreigners to buy and own houses.
According to the Ministry of Construction, since the 2014 Housing Law took effect, the number of houses purchased and owned by foreigners is still very modest (about 3,000 units). Among them, the majority of houses bought by foreigners are apartments in commercial housing projects. This will not affect the demand to buy houses in Vietnam.
In addition, the draft Housing Law (amended) has added strict regulations on types of houses, areas to be purchased, and the number of houses allowed to buy and own in a housing project. Accordingly, foreigners are only allowed to buy commercial houses in projects that are not in areas that need to ensure security and defense. Next, foreigners are not allowed to buy more than 30% of the number of apartments in a building or 250 individual houses in an administrative unit with a population equivalent to the ward level.
The Ministry of Construction will also evaluate regulations on allowing foreigners to buy houses and not affect the implementation of other State housing policies such as social housing and resettlement housing for low-income people in urban areas. In contrast, Resolution 18 of the Central Committee did not mention the regulation on foreigners buying houses in Vietnam, so the Ministry of Construction proposed to keep this provision in the draft Housing Law (amended).
Determine the term of use of the apartment
The Ministry of Construction explained the discussions of the National Assembly deputies related to the policy of apartment building and said that the agency in charge of drafting the Law on Housing (amended) had reported to the Government about allowing permission to receive opinions of the National Assembly Standing Committee on not regulating apartment ownership activities with a definite term in the draft Law on Housing (amended).
However, in order to build an appropriate legal basis for the renovation and rebuilding of the apartment building, the draft law has supplemented and clearly defined the apartment use term, the cases in which it is allowed to demolish the apartment, the rights and obligations of the owner in the relocation, demolition, and contribution of construction funds for the rebuilding of the apartment building, and the responsibilities of related parties when carrying out the demolition and rebuilding of the apartment building to have a basis for handling and solving difficult cases.
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