property in vietnam

Can I buy property, say an apt or building, in Vietnam if I am an american citizen?

See below but hire a lawyer firstly as there are a number of issues involved!

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July 2007
Some experts believe that the new law allowing foreigners to own property in Vietnam will warm the market, and even create a price fever in the market, but others do not share the same view.

21,000 foreigners eligible to buy houses in Vietnam

Under the pilot scheme on allowing foreigners to buy houses in Vietnam, 21,000 of 81,000 foreigners who have been working and living in Vietnam since 2004 will be eligible to own property.

Nguyen Manh Ha, Head of the Housing Management Department under the Ministry of Construction (MoC), the author of the pilot scheme, said that the scheme had been drawn up in a way that prevented speculation in the context of higher demand over supply in Vietnam.

In Hanoi, some 1,300 apartments with the total area of 220,000 sq m are being leased to foreigners, mostly in the districts of Hoan Kiem, Ba Dinh and Tay Ho.

In HCM City, foreigners are living in 4,000 leased apartments with the total area of 660,000 sq m, mostly in Phu My Hung new urban area, and districts of 1, 2, 3 and 5, and Phu Nhuan.

Foreigners prefer villas and high-grade apartments. In Hanoi, leasing fees range from $700 to $1,000/month on average for every apartment. In HCM City, leasing fees are usually between $1,000-1,500/month on average, and they are more for apartments in the centre of the city, at $2,500-3,000/month. The leasing duration is less than five years.

Though encouraged by the pilot scheme, foreigners still fear that the new policy will face a lot of difficulties in implementation. Richard Leech, Managing Director of CBRE, said that he would buy a house immediately when he was permitted to, but when reviewing the progress made in recent years in the policy on allowing foreigners to own property, said he believed that a lot of barriers still existed.

The Housing Law, which came into effect on July 1, 2006, stipulates that Viet Kieu have the right to buy houses in Vietnam. However, over the last one year, only several Viet Kieu have been able to buy houses in accordance with the new law.