Ho Chi Minh City Opens 10 More Housing Projects to Foreign Buyers

Ho Chi Minh City's People's Committee has added 10 housing projects to the list of developments that foreign organisations and individuals are permitted to buy into, in a release published on 8 October, the thirteenth such list the city has issued. The additions include phases 1, 2 and 3B of the Saigon Pearl complex in Thanh My Tay ward, developed by Vietnam Land SSG, and the Ngoc Luc Bao 68 apartment project marketed as The Emerald 68 in Binh Hoa ward, developed by Le Phong Group.

What it means for a foreign buyer

Eligibility in Vietnam runs project by project, not city-wide. A foreign buyer cannot simply pick an apartment in Ho Chi Minh City and transact: the specific development has to appear on the People's Committee's published list, and until 8 October these 10 did not. If you were in negotiation on a unit in any of them, the legal basis for a foreign purchase now exists where it did not last week. The Department of Construction is to publish the project details on its electronic information portal, and that portal, not a sales agent's assurance, is where you confirm a development's status before money moves.

Two cautions sit on top of that. The 30 percent ceiling on foreign-owned apartments in any single condominium building still applies, so a project appearing on the list tells you it is open, not that there is room left in it. That quota is consumed by whoever bought before you, and the running count is the developer's to disclose. Separately, several of the newly listed developments are residential areas rather than apartment towers, which matters because the latest draft of the amended Housing Law would remove the option for foreigners to own detached houses and townhouses inside projects while keeping the 30 percent apartment cap. A landed unit that is eligible today sits in exactly the part of the framework the legislature is rewriting.

Confirm the list entry and the building's remaining foreign quota before you pay anything beyond a refundable deposit.

What changed

The 10 projects were released in two batches. The first four are the C1 and C2 high-rise blocks in the Hung Phu residential area, Tam Binh ward (Hung Phu Invest); the Hoang Ha My residential area, An Phu ward (Hoang Ha My Real Estate); a mixed residential, commercial-service and office development in An Khanh ward (G Homes House Development); and Ngoc Luc Bao 68, The Emerald 68, in Binh Hoa ward (Le Phong Group).

The remaining six are The Emerald River Park, Lai Thieu ward (Minh Phuc Real Estate Investment and Development); the Thanh Loc apartment and hotel complex, Thuan An ward (Thanh Loc Real Estate Investment); the Loc Phu Gia residential area, Phuoc Hoa commune (Levacom Real Estate); the Lot A high-rise block in the Tan Phu residential area, Tan My ward (Bao Gia); phase 1 of the Dong Duong apartment and commercial-service centre, Dien Hong ward (Kingdom Dong Duong); and phases 1, 2 and 3B of the Saigon River complex, Saigon Pearl, Thanh My Tay ward (Vietnam Land SSG).

Published counts of the cumulative total diverge. VnExpress put the running total at 158 eligible projects, while Znews reported 160 and VnEconomy's English edition said approximately 160. The 10 additions themselves are consistent across all three reports.

The mechanism

This is an administrative release under existing law, not a new instrument. The eligibility list is maintained by the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee under the 2023 Law on Housing and Decree 95/2024/ND-CP, which set the conditions a project and a buyer must satisfy: a foreign-invested enterprise needs a valid Investment Registration Certificate, a foreign individual needs valid entry clearance and cannot claim diplomatic or consular privileges, and the property cannot lie inside a restricted national defence or security zone.

Because eligibility is conferred by a committee release rather than a gazetted decree, it carries very little advance warning in either direction. Projects arrive in batches on no published schedule, which is why the city has issued thirteen lists, and the same route is how a development's status can be revised. A buyer relying on eligibility has no statutory notice period to plan around, and should treat the portal entry as the live record rather than a permanent one.

Context

Foreign ownership in Vietnam is narrow by design. Foreign individuals and organisations may own no more than 30 percent of the apartments in a single condominium building, and no more than 250 standalone houses within an area of ward-equivalent population. Ownership is leasehold in character and confined to designated projects, which is the function this list performs.

The volumes are small. Citing a Ministry of Construction report, VnExpress put nationwide certified foreign ownership at 6,188 units, of which 5,772 are held by individuals and 416 by organisations, with 1,519 apartments bought by foreigners since the 2023 Law on Housing took effect. That framework is now in flux: the revised Law on Housing and the amended Law on Real Estate Business were cleared by the National Assembly Standing Committee on 2 October and are before the Assembly this session, and the draft that would bar foreigners from villas and townhouses entirely would narrow what a list like this one can offer. Buyers weighing a unit in any newly listed tower should also read how the 30 percent quota behaves when you are buyer number 31, and how August's Urban Development Law reshaped approvals in Ho Chi Minh City.