25/03/2024
According to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, the amended Land Law includes 16 chapters with 260 articles, amending and supplementing 180 out of 212 articles of the Land Law 2013 and adding 78 new articles.
The amended Land Law 2024 has institutionalized the Party’s guidelines, resolving difficulties and problems identified during the summary of the implementation of the Land Law. Some outstanding new points of amended Land Law are expected to contribute to the country's socio-economic development.
Amended Land Law 2024 are expected to contribute to the country's socio-economic development
The land price frameworks are updated annually
According to the provisions of the Land Law 2013, the land price frameworks are regulated every 5 years and must be adjusted and supplemented in case of fluctuations in market land price. However, in reality, there are very few cases where adjustments to the land price frameworks are made during the application process, leading to the land price frameworks not reflecting the actual land price on the market.
Institutionalizing Resolution No.18/NQ-TW and based on consensus among agencies, the Land Law amends regulations on promulgating annual land price frameworks to ensure adherence to actual market principles and expand the application scope of land price frameworks.
The amended law also stipulates that the Provincial People's Committee is responsible for submitting to the People's Council to adjust, amend and supplement the land price frameworks to announce and apply from January 1 of the following year or to adjust, amend and supplement the land price frameworks during the year and assign the Government to make detailed regulations to ensure that the land price frameworks will be updated in accordance with reality.
The land price frameworks are now identified according to market principles. This is considered the most important content in the amended Land Law. Basically, this gives more benefits to landowners, while real estate businesses can more easily perform the land clearance task in compliance with the market mechanism.
Agreement on land use rights to implement for the housing project
One of the contents that received many different opinions in the amended Land Law is about types of land for implementing commercial housing projects through agreements on receiving land use rights or having land use rights.
At Point b, Clause 1 and Clause 6, Article 127 of the Land Law has recently been passed by the National Assembly stipulates: Can carry out commercial housing projects through agreements on receiving land use rights for residential land; may use existing land use rights to implement commercial housing projects on residential land or other land.
In case of necessity, the Government is requested to research and develop a pilot project to submit to competent authorities for submission to the National Assembly to considerate and promulgate a resolution allowing pilot implementation of commercial housing projects through agreements on receiving land use rights or have other land use rights than those prescribed by the Law.
Issuing “red books” for land without documents
The amended Land Law has supplemented the content of granting Certificates. Certificate of land use rights (red book) for households and individuals who are using land without documents without violating land laws, and not in cases where land is allocated without authority.
Accordingly, households and individuals that used land before December 18, 1980 and are certified by the commune and not having disputes will be granted a Certificate of land use rights and ownership of assets attached to land as follows:
For land plots with houses, houses and works to serve daily life, if the area of the land plot is equal to or larger than the residential land recognition limit as prescribed in Clause 5, Article 141 of this Law, the residential land area will be recognized the residential land and do not have to pay land use fees.
For land plots used for non-agricultural production and business, trade and service purposes, non-agricultural production and business land shall be recognized according to the actual use area; the form of land use is recognized as land allocation with collection of land use fees, and the land use term is stable and long-term.
Recovering land for socio-economic development for national and public benefits
Article 79 of the Land Law 2024 specifically stipulates 32 cases in which the State recovers land for socio-economic development for national and public benefits as follows:
The State recovers land in cases where it is absolutely necessary to implement socio-economic development projects for national and public benefits in order to promote land resources, improve land use efficiency, and develop infrastructure, socio-economic strata towards modernity, implementing social security policies, environmental protection and cultural heritage preservation in the following cases: construction of traffic works; construction of irrigation works; construction of water supply and drainage works; construction of waste treatment works; construction of energy and public lighting projects; construction of oil and gas projects; construction of postal, telecommunications, and information technology infrastructure; construction of local markets and wholesale markets; construction of religious works; construction of religious works; construction of public entertainment and recreation areas, community activities; construction of headquarters of the Communist Party of Vietnam, state agencies, Vietnam Fatherland Front, socio-political organizations, socio-political-professional organizations, social-professional organizations enterprises, social organizations and other organizations established in accordance with the law are assigned tasks and supported by the State with regular operating expenses; construction of headquarters or representative offices of public service units under the Communist Party of Vietnam, state agencies, and socio-political organizations; construction of cultural facilities, historical-cultural relics, and scenic spots; construction of medical facilities and social service facilities established or permitted by the State to operate; construction of educational and training establishments established or permitted by the State to operate; construction of fitness and sports facilities established or permitted by the State to operate; construction of science and technology facilities established or permitted by the State to operate; construction of diplomatic facilities; construction of non-business projects on environmental treatment, biodiversity conservation, meteorology, hydrology, registration and quarantine of animals and plants...;
Regarding land allocation, leasing, and conversion of land use purposes
The amended Land Law has added many bases for land allocation, leasing, and permission to change land use purposes. For cases where the state allocates land without collecting land use fees, the law specifies the subjects who are allocated land by the state without land use fees for constructing state agency headquarters. Additionally, three cases have been added, including: allocating land for agencies, organizations to implement public housing projects; allocating land to ethnic minorities who are beneficiaries of policies; and allocating land for religious purposes as compensation for cases where the state recovers religious land.
For cases where the state allocates land with land use fees, the law also adds three instances, including: economic organizations allocated land to implement commercial housing projects, social housing, housing for the armed forces; investment projects for renovation and reconstruction of apartment buildings; constructing facilities for storing ashes.
The second case is for overseas Vietnamese and foreign-invested economic organizations allocated land to implement commercial housing projects as per the housing law; using land received through the transfer of real estate projects as per the real estate business law for cases where the state allocates land with land use fees.
The third case is for households, individuals, overseas Vietnamese allocated land as land compensation when the state recovers land.
Regarding cases where the state leases land, the law also specifies the instances where the state collects a one-time land lease fee for the entire lease period. At the same time, it specifies cases of land allocation and leasing that must go through bidding or auction and cases where land allocation and leasing do not require going through these processes.
Regarding the conversion of land use purposes, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment indicates that it has been controlled by the amended Land Law from the planning and land use planning stages, with provisions that the content of district-level land use planning must specifically determine the area of land allowed for conversion of use.
The conversion of land use purposes is also controlled from the step where competent authorities organize investment policy decisions, land use rights auctions, and investor selection for projects through regulations on decisions to allow the conversion of land use purposes based on investment policy decisions, auction results of land use rights, and results of investor selection for project implementation.
The amended Land Law also specifically regulates cases of land use for commercial housing projects through the mechanism where the state recovers land to organize auctions of land use rights, tendering for investor selection for the project, conversion of land use purposes for those currently having land use rights for residential land, and other types of land.
The amended Land Law also provides for the amendment of some articles of the Forestry Law to centralize the entire authority to approve the conversion of forest use purposes to the Provincial People’s Councils.
Specific regulations on land allocation and land lease through auction of land use rights
To ensure synchronization and consistency with the provisions of Chapter VIII on "development, management and exploitation of land funds", Chapter IX of the Land Law 2024 specifically stipulates: “land allocation and land lease through auction of land use rights” (Article 125) for “clean land” created by the State; or “land allocation, land lease through bidding to select investors to implement investment projects using land” (Article 126) for “uncleared land” for which “the investor wins the bidding is responsible for advancing capital to carry out compensation, support, and resettlement at the request of the competent state agency" and within 36 months from the date of issuance of the decision to recognize the winning bid results or other deadlines according to the contract signed with the competent state agency, the People's Committee of the competent level must complete the compensation, support, and resettlement to allocate land and lease land for houses. Investment winning bid.
Regulations on the right to choose the method of paying land rent
Economic organizations, public service units, individuals, people of Vietnamese origin residing abroad, economic organizations with foreign investment capital are leasing land from the State with annual land rent but in cases where the State leases land with one-time rental payment for the entire lease period according to the provisions of this Law, they can choose to switch to land lease with one-time land rental payment for the remaining land lease period and must determine return the land price to calculate the land rent at the time of the decision to allow conversion to land lease in the form of one-time land rent payment for the entire lease period according to the provisions of this Law.
Economic organizations, individuals, people of Vietnamese origin residing abroad, economic organizations with foreign investment capital are being leased land by the State with a one-time land rental payment for the entire selected lease period switch to renting land and collecting annual land rent. Paid land rent is deducted from the annual land rent payable according to Government regulations.
Public service units are allocated land by the State without collecting land use fees; in case a public service unit needs to use part or all of the assigned area for production, business, or service provision, it can choose to switch to the form of State land lease with land rent collection every year for that area.
The Land Law in Vietnam is not merely a set of rules governing land transactions; it is a strategic instrument that shapes the country’s development trajectory. It ensures that land resources are used efficiently and responsibly, aligning with the broader goals of economic growth, social justice, and environmental sustainability.
Nham Hien
