The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment's General Department of Land Management reported that while overseas Vietnamese bought apartments in the country, foreigners rarely did so.

According to statistics, around 300 overseas Vietnamese and foreign individuals and organisations bought apartments in Vietnam before the Lunar New Year in 2012.

Vietnam has policies on selling apartments to overseas Vietnamese and foreigners that were put in place in 2008 by Resolution 19/2008/QH12 and Decree 51/2009/ND-CP.

The policies were expected to create breakthroughs in the domestic real estate market but they did not create as much interest as expected.

Experts said regulations on property trading for overseas Vietnamese and foreigners were now too strict; for example, they could own their own apartments but not their own houses./.