New land law could entice Viet Kieu home

Quang Lang, a former overseas Vietnamese person, or Viet Kieu, from Australia, moved back to his homeland in 2021 and is now living with relatives after more than two years renting a serviced apartment in Thu Duc of Ho Chi Minh City, due to the increased rent.

New land law could entice Viet Kieu home, illustration photo

However, Lang said he is encouraged by new laws that will enable people like him to be able to buy a house in Vietnam. “This is a prerequisite to being able to keep overseas Vietnamese staying and contributing to the homeland,” Lang said.

Lang, who is 65 years old this year, said that his wife and several cousins are also planning to return to Vietnam to live after many years away from home, and having the right to own real estate in Vietnam would be a great way to encourage them.

Troy Griffiths, deputy managing director of Savills Vietnam, said that he has cooperated with many Vietnamese living abroad.

“One of the main points is that many of them are older now. These may be people who have migrated abroad, after many years of hard work, and now own certain assets and capital and are considering investing back in Vietnam,” Griffiths said.

He added that Vietnamese people often highly appreciate the family values not found elsewhere, and often seek a way to come home.

“They not only bring capital but also highly specialised skills that can be transferred to Vietnam,” Griffiths said. “Therefore, this is a very welcome move by the government, and hopefully it will open up more sources of capital and intelligence for the country.”

Griffiths took an example of the New Turing Institute and VinAi, in which a team of doctors have returned to Vietnam and are now using their knowledge to help the country develop.

The expansion of land use rights for Vietnamese residing abroad in the revised Land Law is good news for the Viet Kieu community who wish to own real estate in Vietnam.

This follows remittance flows in 2023 reaching more than $16 billion, a sharp increase of 32 per cent compared to 2022.

In the Land Law effective from 2025, the expanding land use rights for overseas Vietnamese was one of the highlighted items. Specifically, the article on land users stipulates that they are allocated land, leased land, and have land use rights recognised by the state; or are using land and are eligible for land use certificates and ownership of assets attached to land, but have not yet been granted a certificate by the state. This includes domestic individuals, Vietnamese people residing abroad who are Vietnamese citizens, and people of Vietnamese origin residing abroad.

Along with this, the new Law on Real Estate Business also amends the regulation that Vietnamese people residing abroad are Vietnamese citizens and have rights and obligations related to land like domestic citizens. This in effect means Viet Kieu can do real estate business similarly to domestic citizens.

Thus, overseas Vietnamese will be able to invest in building houses and construction projects for sale, lease, or lease purchase; and invest in technical infrastructure of real estate projects to transfer, lease, or sublease land use rights that already have such infrastructure.

Statistics from the State Committee for Overseas Vietnamese show that more than $200 billion of remittances have entered Vietnam since records began in 1993, nearly equal to the amount of foreign direct investment garnered in the same period. Most remittances come from Asian countries through workers, and experts say much of this money has flowed into real estate. In 2016 this was deemed to be as much as 20 per cent, according to the Central Institute for Economic Management.

Peter Hong, an overseas Vietnamese in Canada and president of the Overseas Vietnamese Businessmen Association, emphasised that new laws can play an important part in paving the way for the real estate market.

“Many overseas Vietnamese shared with me that they wanted to return to Vietnam to live but did not know where to buy real estate, at what price, and how to own it. Many of them have worked abroad for decades, depositing money in banks without interest, and even having to pay fees when coming here, so they want to return to Vietnam to invest and buy real estate. The law amendments are reasonable so that overseas Vietnamese can feel secure when returning to Vietnam to live,” Hong emphasised.

There are about 5.5 million Vietnamese people abroad and more than one million generations whose parents or grandparents are Vietnamese, Hong noted.

“Of these, more than 20 per cent are coming into retirement age. Many of those want to return home to live and invest in their later years,” he said.

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