Hanoi (VNA) - The National Assembly (NA) Standing Committee opened debate on amending the Law on Real Estate Business in Hanoi on July 29, with NA Chairman Tran Thanh Man chairing the discussions as part of its ongoing fourth session.
Chairman Man said the amendment of the Law on Real Estate Business must move in lockstep with a broader clean-up of rules governing land, housing, investment, planning, construction and finance. The amendments, he said, must fully codify principles laid out in the Party Central Committee’s third plenum resolution on land-law reform while making the legal framework coherent, free of overlap and more enforceable.
After nearly two years of implementation, the law has exposed a string of weaknesses that demand a timely fix to catch up with reality, Man noted.
One sticking point is the rule on deposits and off-plan home sales. The current 5% deposit cap is too low to lock in a buyer’s commitment, opening the door to speculation, paper flipping and arbitrary contract cancellations, he added.
At the same time, a requirement that developers can only take deposits after a project has full business eligibility, a construction permit or completed infrastructure has choked off legitimate early-stage funding, forcing builders to lean more heavily on costly bank loans. He called for solutions to both problems.
On planning, he pointed to discrepancies between land use planning and real estate business conditions. Planning systems in many localities remain disjointed, and detailed zoning updates have lagged master plans and land use frameworks. Rules capping the residential share in mixed-use projects continue to trip up investment approvals and product sales licenses.
Given those gaps, he said lawmakers should zero in on several policy priorities, including revamping deposit and early-financing mechanisms, spelling out rules for investment cooperation agreements and expressions of interest before projects can be marketed, and ensuring compliance with maximum limits, with bank guarantees, oversight and safeguards to protect the interests of all parties.
The top legislator also pushed to standardise property identification and plug it into a national data system. Each unit brought to market would carry a unique identification code bundling full details on legal status, zoning, mortgages, transaction history and other relevant data.
Project information will have to go live on the national data system before any deposits are taken or deals closed. Transactions without the required identification code would get no legal recognition.
The revision is not about simply tightening or loosening the reins. Rather, it’s about erecting a transparent, stable and highly predictable legal framework that is consistent with the Land Law, Housing Law, Law on Credit Institutions and other related laws, he said.
According to a government report, the draft law aims to promote decentralisation and delegation of authority, cut business conditions, simplify administrative procedures, accelerate digital transformation, and develop a fully integrated national data system.
The draft law revises regulations on the approval of full or partial transfers of real estate projects by shifting the decision-making authority from the Prime Minister to provincial-level People’s Committees, while also removing or revising the Ministry of Construction’s inspection responsibilities in the real estate business sector.
Representing the reviewing agency, Chairman of the NA’s Committee for Economic and Financial Affairs Phan Van Mai said its standing members agreed on the need to revise the law./.
