“For sale” signs may welcome expats
“For sale” signs may welcome expats
As the moribund property market punishes Vietnam’s economy, there is momentum to make it easer for overseas Vietnamese and foreigners to buy homes.
Vu Xuan Thien, deputy director of the Ministry of Construction’s Real Estate Market and Housing Management Department, said the regulations over the house ownership of overseas Vietnamese and foreigners would be loosened in the near future.
“There’s no reason to restrict foreigners to have one or even more houses in Vietnam,” Thien said. “Apart from expanding categories which are eligible to have house ownership, the condition for donating or leasing houses to foreigners will also be expanded.”
Four years after Vietnam first enabled foreigners to own homes in Vietnam, a survey showed that fewer than 500 such purchases had been made despite much larger demand.
Nguyen Mai, former deputy chairman of the State Committee for Cooperation and Investment (SCCI) - now the Ministry of Planning and Investment, said there should be more perspectives in creating conditions for foreigners or overseas Vietnamese to own houses in Vietnam.
Mai said the government had given certificates to foreign entities even for big projects like the Phu My Hung new urban area in Ho Chi Minh City or Ciputra new urban area in Hanoi. Therefore, it is reasonable to lift restrictions on foreigners to transfer homes.
“The regulation to permit foreigners to have house ownership in Vietnam should be a long-term vision and be more synchronous. I think that conditions for foreigners must be opened,” Mai said.
Meanwhile, Vietnam is now home to more than 80,000 foreigners and Vietnamese overseas.
“This is a good demand which we cannot ignore,” said Tran Nhu Trung, deputy director of Savills.
Do Nhat Hoang, director of the Ministry of Planning and Investment’s Foreign Investment Agency, said because issues related to foreigners remained quite sensitive, policies and regulations must be considered carefully.
“The permission is right. However, we have to outline details to avoid negative impacts,” Hoang said.
Meanwhile, the Ho Chi Minh City Real Estate Association recently suggested the government permit foreigners to buy luxury houses in Vietnam.
Le Hoang Chau, chairman of the association, said foreigners would increase sales.
Conditions for those deals, Chau suggested, were that foreigners should be permitted to buy houses priced at VND30 million ($1,428) per square metre upward. They should also permitted to buy houses in certain projects which were permitted to sell to foreigners by local provincial authorities.
Huynh Anh Dung, senior teacher of American Property Expert Council, said that Vietnam should be more open to foreigners and Vietnamese overseas.
“We must think to export houses to abroad, or in other words, to permit foreigners to have houses in Vietnam - one way which many other countries have been doing for long time,” Dung said.
According to Resolution 19 dated 3/6/2008 issued by the National Assembly, five types of organisations and foreign individuals are eligible to buy and own houses in Vietnam.
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