Vietnam's 2024 Land Law: What Foreigners Can and Cannot Own in 2026

Vietnam's 2024 Land Law: What Foreigners Can and Cannot Own in 2026

The short answer is unchanged. Foreigners cannot own land in Vietnam under any structure. The Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam 2013, Article 53, states that land is the property of the entire people, with the State exercising the role of representative owner and unified management. The 2024 Land Law, codified as Law No. 31/2024/QH15, took effect on August 1, 2024 (brought forward from the originally scheduled January 1, 2025 by Law No. 43/2024/QH15) and did not change that fundamental rule.

What the 2024 Land Law did change, materially, is the treatment of overseas Vietnamese (Việt kiều) and the procedural framework that affects every foreign-funded property transaction. The 2024 Land Law is the most substantial overhaul of Vietnamese land legislation since the 2013 Land Law, and the practical implications for foreigners living and investing in Vietnam in 2026 are significant enough that any foreign buyer or operator needs to understand them.

The fundamental rule that did not change

Article 4 of the 2024 Land Law confirms that land belongs to the entire people with the State as the unified representative of ownership. Individuals and entities hold Land Use Rights (Quyền sử dụng đất), which can be assigned, leased, mortgaged, or inherited within the limits set by law, but the underlying land remains state property.

Foreign individuals (those without Vietnamese citizenship and not Việt kiều of Vietnamese ancestry) cannot hold Land Use Rights for residential land. The only path for a foreign natural person to "own" residential real estate in Vietnam is to acquire an apartment or house in an approved commercial housing project under the Housing Law (Law No. 27/2023/QH15, which took effect August 1, 2024 alongside the new Land Law).

Under the Housing Law 2023, Article 17, foreign individuals legally permitted to enter Vietnam and foreign entities operating in Vietnam may own residential houses in commercial housing projects, subject to caps: no more than 30% of apartment units in any single condominium building, and no more than 250 separate houses (villas, townhouses) per administrative ward (or 10% of separate houses in any commercial housing project area). The ownership term is 50 years from the date of issuance of the ownership certificate, renewable once for up to a further 50 years.

The 2024 Land Law and the 2023 Housing Law do not permit foreign individuals to hold Land Use Rights outside approved commercial housing projects. The "nominee Vietnamese spouse" or "Vietnamese friend" workaround is not legally enforceable, and the courts have consistently ruled that such arrangements transfer ownership to the named Vietnamese party. Foreigners who relied on this structure have lost the property entirely on dispute.

The big change: Việt kiều rights

The headline change in the 2024 Land Law is the expansion of Land Use Rights for overseas Vietnamese who retain Vietnamese citizenship. Under Articles 4 and 28 of the 2024 Land Law, Vietnamese citizens residing abroad now have effectively the same Land Use Rights as Vietnamese citizens residing domestically. This means:

Việt kiều with Vietnamese citizenship can hold Land Use Rights directly in their own name, including for land outside approved commercial housing projects. They can receive Land Use Rights by transfer, inheritance, gift, or capital contribution. They are not subject to the 30% foreign quota in condominiums or the 250-house ward limit.

The change is meaningful because previously, Việt kiều rights were governed by complex provisions in the 2013 Land Law that distinguished between Vietnamese citizens residing abroad, persons of Vietnamese origin who had lost Vietnamese citizenship, and foreigners married to Vietnamese citizens. The 2024 Land Law simplifies this: if you hold a Vietnamese passport and were issued a Việt kiều identification, you have domestic Vietnamese Land Use Rights.

For persons of Vietnamese origin who have lost Vietnamese citizenship (those holding only foreign passports), the rights remain narrower. Such persons are treated more like foreigners under the Housing Law 2023 ownership rules, with limited exceptions for inheritance.

What the 2024 Land Law changed for foreign-invested entities

For foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs) operating in Vietnam, the 2024 Land Law clarified the framework for industrial land and project land allocation. Articles 79 to 81 of the 2024 Land Law set out the categories of land that can be allocated or leased by the State to organizations, including foreign-invested entities operating commercial projects in Vietnam.