Vietnam Moves to Double the Minimum Land Auction Deposit to 20 Percent of the Starting Price

Vietnam's government has asked the National Assembly to set the deposit for auctions of residential land-use rights allocated to individuals at 20 to 50 percent of the starting price, doubling the 10 percent floor currently in force and writing the figure into primary legislation for the first time. Minister of Justice Hoang Thanh Tung presented the draft revised Law on Asset Auction on 19 October 2026, on behalf of the Government and authorised by the Prime Minister, during the second session of the 16th National Assembly.

What it means for a foreign buyer

Foreign individuals cannot bid for residential land-use rights in Vietnam, so this rule lands on the developers and domestic bidders who assemble the land you eventually buy an apartment on. That is precisely why it matters. A 20 percent floor on the deposit means a bidder must park a fifth of the starting price with the state before the gavel falls, and at the top of the range, half of it. Thinly capitalised bidders who win plots they cannot pay for, then walk away from the deposit, are a direct cause of the stalled-site problem that leaves buyers holding contracts on projects that never break ground. If this passes, the developer bidding on the land under your future building has to show real money earlier in the process.

The second change is one you can use directly. Bidders who forfeit deposits or collude would be barred from future auctions for six months to five years, and their names published on the National Property Auction Portal. That turns a state website into a free screening tool: before you sign anything off-plan, you can check whether the company behind the land has been barred from bidding and why. Developer financial stress in Vietnam is already visible in public lists, and this adds another.

Watch the Assembly through 21 November before you read the 20 percent figure as settled.

What changed

The draft sets the deposit for individuals bidding on residential land-use rights at 20 to 50 percent of the starting price. What is in force today is narrower at the bottom: Government Resolution No. 66.11/2026/NQ-CP, effective 6 January 2026, set a minimum of 10 percent and a maximum of 50 percent, replacing the 5 to 20 percent range in the standing Law on Property Auctions, under which organisations deposited 10 to 20 percent. The ceiling is therefore unchanged. The floor doubles.

National Assembly President Tran Thanh Man, speaking in a group discussion the same day, pushed for the deposit requirement to be extended beyond residential land to other asset classes prone to manipulation, and for the list of prohibited acts to cover leaking participants' names and dossiers before official disclosure, and interfering in or steering the selection of auction entities and auctioneers. He also backed making the National Property Auction Portal mandatory and state-run, with strict electronic identification, and moving most asset types online except those on a prescribed exemption list.

The pushback is on the record. Phan Van Mai, Chairman of the Assembly's Committee for Economic and Financial Affairs, delivered the review report and questioned the 20 to 50 percent range, warning that the maximum could restrict access, raise capital costs and reduce competition. The committee asked for more data, an effectiveness assessment and clearer criteria for setting the deposit within the range.

The mechanism

The instrument is a full rewrite rather than an amendment: seven chapters and 64 articles, retaining provisions that currently work. It matters that the deposit rule is moving out of a government resolution and into a law. Resolution 66.11/2026/NQ-CP carries an expiry date of 28 February 2027, so the 10 to 50 percent range in force today lapses on its own unless something replaces it. A resolution can also be reissued or amended by the Government without a parliamentary vote, which is how the range moved from 5 to 20 percent to 10 to 50 percent in a single step in January. Once the figure sits in the Law on Asset Auction, changing it again requires the Assembly.

The ban regime is partly a codification rather than an invention. Resolution 66.11 already provides for bans of two to five years for deliberate non-payment and six months to three years for partial payment, issued by the authority that approves the auction result within 10 days of cancelling it, with names published on the portal. The draft law carries that architecture forward and widens the conduct it attaches to.

Context

Land in Vietnam is not owned outright. The state allocates land-use rights, and auctions are the main route by which residential plots reach private hands, which makes auction rules a direct input into how land is priced and who can compete for it. Foreign individuals are confined to apartments within per-building and per-ward quotas and cannot hold residential land-use rights at all, a line the draft housing law would harden further by barring foreigners from landed houses.

The Assembly opened on 17 October 2026 and sits for 28 days to 21 November, with a recess from 15 to 19 November for agencies to revise drafts. It is scheduled to review and approve 43 laws and legal resolutions, and is taking the Land, Housing and Real Estate Business law amendments in the same window as the auction bill.