Laws of Vietnam

To implement the 1991 Ordinance on Dwelling Houses and the 1993 Land Law, the Government has issued the Decree on the Dwelling House Ownership and Residential Land Use Right in Urban Areas, and the Decree on Dwelling House Purchase, Sale and Business.

With a view to ensuring that the implementation of the State policies on dwelling houses and residential land be strict, accurate and highly efficient, meeting the legitimate desire of the cadres and people, and bringing order and law to the management of dwelling houses and residential land, the Prime Minister now instructs:

1. To establish a Central Steering Committee on dwelling house and residential land policy (hereunder referred to as the Central Steering Committee) with a Deputy Prime Minister as the Chairman, the Minister of Construction as the Vice Chairman, and a membership composed of representatives of the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Finance, the General Land Administration and the Pricing Committee of the Government, along with invited members who are a Vice President of the Presidium of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Central Committee and a Vice President of the Vietnam General Federation of Labor.

The Central Steering Committee is responsible for directly helping the Prime Minister direct the People's Committees of the provinces and cities directly under to the Central Government, the ministries and State committees and the agencies directly under the Central Government to well implement the above-said policies.

As regards a number of key areas such as Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Haiphong, Quang Nam-Da Nang, the Central Steering Committee shall set up working groups to constantly monitor the situation and coordinate actions with their provincial steering committees to detect newly arising problems and issues, and promptly report them to the Prime Minister.

Every six months, the Central Steering Committee shall report to the Prime Minister the results of the implementation throughout the country and its plan for the next six months.

2. The Central Steering Committee shall convene at an early date a conference with the participation of the Vice Presidents of the People's Committees of the provinces and cities directly under the Central Government in charge of housing and land, the directors of the Provincial Departments for Housing, Construction, Finance-Pricing and Land Administration, and the Chief Architects of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City to provide them with a firm grasp of the State guidelines and policies on dwelling houses and residential land.

3. The ministries, agencies of the ministerial level and the concerned Government agencies shall quickly issue the necessary guiding documents to ensure a nation-wide unified methods to determine the residual value of houses their classes and categories; measure and map housing areas; set standard floor prices for new houses and houses for rent; set price brackets for each period; the regulations for apartment buildings; the fees and revenues generated from the issue of certificates of dwelling house ownership and assigning the right to use residential land; the taxes levied on housing business; the management and use of the money generated by sales of houses owned by the State; and other matters.

4. To establish the Provincial Steering Committee on dwelling house and residential land policy with a Vice President of the provincial or municipal People's Committee in charge of housing as the Chairman, the director of the Provincial Department of Housing (or the Department of Construction where the Department of Housing does not exist) as the Vice Chairman, and a membership including representatives of the Provincial Departments of Finance-Pricing, Justice and Land Administration, the Chief Architect, the provincial or municipal chapter of the Vietnam Fatherland Front and the provincial or municipal chapter of the Vietnam General Federation of Labor.

The Provincial Steering Committee shall directly help the President of the provincial or municipal People's Committee to convene a conference of leaders of all the directly subordinate branches and levels to acquaint them with, and organize them to implement, the Government polices on dwelling houses and residential land in the provincial territory; and organize training courses to help the branches and levels to implement them. Expenditures for the training and implementation in the locality shall be advanced by the local budget and refunded on revenues from the selling of houses, the issue of certification of dwelling house ownership and the assigning of residential land-use right in the locality.

5. In the implementation of the policies on dwelling houses and residential land, attention must be paid to the following contents:

a) In the sale of houses owned by the State, the general principle is not to conduct on a massive scale but on a steady and step-by-step. Sales shall be made first of all on houses of categories III and IV and houses in suburban residential quarters to draw experience before putting on sale houses of categories I and II and villas in urban areas, along streets and downtown areas convenient for service and business activities.

Dwelling houses which are salable but which are under the management of ministries or branches of the Central Government shall be transferred to localities for their sales to be made in accordance with uniform procedures. Government agencies are not allowed to organize their own sales or set the prices and take the money for their own expenditure at the expense of the State budget.

b) In issuing certificates of dwelling house ownership and assigning residential land-use right, the listing and registration of dwelling houses and residential land shall be carried out definitively at each ward and district in each city and town.

In areas where the listing and registration have been completed, the certification shall be made first for those who purchased State-owned houses and have fully paid for them, and for those who have full documents certifying their ownership of the dwelling houses and their right to use the residential land, and then for others. From now on, the assigning of residential land and the granting of construction permits for new housing estates must strictly observe the provisions of the Land Law and the regulations on capital construction. After construction, the new house shall be registered and the Provincial People's Committee shall consider the certification of the house ownership. A full stop must be put to land-grabbing practices and illegal and unregistered construction of dwelling houses which are posing difficulties to the management of urban housing and land. All deliberate violations shall be dealt with sternly in accordance with law.

The cadastral and housing administrations must closely cooperate in the preparation of dossiers for the Provincial People's Committee to consider in issuing certificates of dwelling house ownership and assigning residential land in the locality. The measuring and mapping of a dwelling house and its residential land must be carried out simultaneously, in which the land administration shall measure and map the land and provide the description, and the housing administration shall measure and map the house and design its plan in the granting of certificate of dwelling house ownership and residential land-use right.

c) To ensure the sale of houses owned by the State and the granting of certificate of dwelling house ownership and residential land-use right, the President of the provincial and municipal People's Committee shall direct the specialized offices to make detailed plans on the basis of the already approved master plan. The detailed plans, especially those on land zoning, must be widely publicized.

d) To publicize widely through the mass media the significance and goal of the State policies on dwelling houses and residential land. To post at the head offices of the Communal People's Committees and other public places documents on the State policies on dwelling houses and residential land and their implementation guidance so that the cadres and population can understand, support and actively respond to them.

In the course of the implementation, the provinces shall regularly draw experience and periodically report the results to the Prime Minister. For matters which are not clear, they must report them to the Central Steering Committee for guidance and must not set their own regulations which are contrary to the already promulgated State documents.

6. Along with the implementation of the new policies on dwelling houses and residential land, the Government has submitted its proposal to, and is waiting for, the National Assembly to issue the Ordinance on People with Meritorious Services. The localities should firmly grasp the housing situation of the persons who are entitled to preferential treatment policies, especially those who have done meritorious services to the revolution in order to facilitate solutions to their problems or make recommendations to the Government.

Plans should be made to develop the various forms of social relief housing so as to contribute to the settlement of the housing problem for people of entitlement policies for whom the entire people has the responsibility to care.

7. Dwelling houses and residential land are matters closely associated with the legitimate demands and rights of every citizen. The housing and residential-land situation still contains in itself many problems and complexities, the settlement of which requires urgent policies and measures in order to, on the one hand, restore order in the management and use of dwelling houses and residential land, making it conform with the plan and, on the other, create more budget revenues for the building of new houses for society. The implementation of the new policies on dwelling houses and residential land must be strict, free of corruption and achieve the highest efficiency.

The Ministers, Heads of the agencies of ministerial level, Heads of the agencies attached to the Government, and Presidents of the People's Committees of the provinces and cities directly under the Central Government shall be responsible for the implementation of this Instruction.