Vietnam

Registering Property in

Vietnam

Listed below is a detailed summary of the steps, time and cost involved in registering property, assuming a standardized case of an entrepreneur who wants to purchase land and a building that is already registered and free of title dispute.

The information appearing on this page was collected as part of the Doing Business project, which measures and compares regulations relevant to the life cycle of a small- to medium-sized domestic business in 183 economies. The most recent round of data collection for the project was completed in June 2011.

  • Standard Property Transfer

  • Property Value: VND 1,042,444,932.24
  • City: Ho Chi Minh City

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No. Procedure Time to Complete Associated Costs
1 Build an application for the transfer of land use rights and ownership of assets attached to the land

Parties buy a land use right transfer contract (standard form). The dossier includes: Land-use right (LUR) certificate, Decision or Resolution of the highest decision-making body of the company regarding the LUR transfer, and company's legal status documents.
1 day VND 4,000
2 The transferor and transferee will sign the contract which will be witnessed and certified by a notary located in the same area as the property

The land use right transfer contract shall be made in duplicate, one for the seller and another for the buyer. The Contract for Transfer of Property must be notarized by the public notary where the land is located (based on Decree 181/2004/ND-CP Guiding the Implementation of the Land Law (Government, October 29, 2004, as amended on January 27, 2006) , Art. 119.1.b)

The dossier for the public notary office includes:
(i) Request for notarization of the contract or transaction on the standard form;
(ii) Final draft of the contract or transaction;
(iii) Copy of the applicant’s personal papers;
(iv) Copies of other documents relevant to the contract or transaction which the law stipulates must be available (Article 35 of Law No. 82-2006-QH11 on Notarization, effective as of 1 July 2007)

The time-limit for notarization shall not exceed 2 working days in the case of a complex contract or transaction, this time-limit may be extended but not beyond 10 working days (Article 38 Law on Notarization No. 82/2006/QH11 takes effect in 1/7/2007).
If the value of property or contract from VND100,000,000 to below VND 1,000,000,000 notary fee is 0,1 % the value of property or the value of property transferring contract. (Interministerial Circular 91/2008/TTLT-BTC-BTP dated 17/10/2008 replaced Inter-ministerial Circular 93/2001/TTLT-BTC-BTP guiding the Regime on Collection, Payment and Management of Fees and Charges from Confirmation and Public Notary).



Agency: Notary Public 		2-10 days 0.1% of the property value
3 The parties pay income tax on assignment of the land-use right and the registration fee at the relevant District Department of Taxation

The registration fee (paid by the transferee) is 0,5% (Circular 79/2008/TT-BTC and Circular 95/2005/TT-BTC have been replaced entirely by Circular 68/2010/TT-BTC dated 26 April 2010 guiding registration fee) .

1. Corporate Income Tax ("CIT"):
(i) Law No. 14/2008/QH12 on Corporate Income Tax, adopted by the National Assembly on 03 June 2008 and took effect on 01 January 2009 ("CIT Law");
(ii) Decree No. 124/2008//ND-CP dated 11 December 2008 of the Government providing details and guidelines for the implementation of a number of articles of the CIT Law ("Decree 124");
(iii) Circular No. 130/2008/TT-BTC dated 26 December 2008 of the Ministry of Finance ("MOF") providing guidelines for the implementation of a number of articles of the CIT Law and Decree 124 ("Circular 130"); and (iv) Circular 18/2011/TT-BTC dated 10 February 2011 of the MOF amending and supplementing Circular 130.

A transfer of the Property is subject to the new standard CIT rate of 25% for both transferring of land use rights and transferring of the warehouse; no surtax applies (Articles 3.2 and 10.1 of the CIT Law).

2. VAT: (i) Law No. 13/2008/QH12 on VAT adopted by the National Assembly on 03 June 2008 and took effect on 01 January 2009 ("VAT Law"); (ii) Decree No. 123/2008/ND-CP dated 08 December 2008 of the Government providing details and guidelines for the implementation of a number of articles of the VAT Law ("Decree 123"); and (iii) Circular No. 129/2008/TT-BTC dated 26 December 2008 of the MOF providing guidelines for the implementation of a number of articles of the VAT Law and Decree 123.

A transfer of land use rights is not subject to VAT (Article 5.6 of the VAT Law), but a transfer of the warehouse is subject to VAT rate of 10% (Article 8.3 of the VAT Law).

3. Registration Fee: (i) Decree 176/1999/ND-CP dated 21 December 1999 of the Government on registration fee ("Decree 176"), as amended by (ii) Decree No. 80/2008/ND-CP dated 29 July 2008 of the Government on amending and supplementing a number of articles of Decree 176 ("Decree 80").

A registration of the Property in the Buyer's name is subject to the rate of 0.5% of the value of the Property (Article 6.1 of the Decree 176 and Article 1.2 of Decree No. 80).

Within 30 days of the date of the agreement on sale and purchase of the Property or the date of confirmation of the legal dossier of the Property by the competent authorities, the Buyer and the Seller must declare the transfer for payment of the registration fee (Article 7.1 of the Amended Decree 176.




Agency: District Department of Taxation 		25-30 days The registration fee (paid by the transferee) is 0,5% (Circular 79/2008/TT- BTC dated 15/9/2008 replaced Item II Section II Circular 95/2005/TT- BTC guiding on registration fee). The tax rate of the income tax from the assigment of land use right (paid
4 The land-use right transferee shall register the right to use land

The Land Use Right Registration Office is the prescribed authority. Currently, there are many land use rights registration offices in Ho Chi Minh City, including the provincial land use rights registration office (immediately under the Department of Natural Resources and Environment of Ho Chi Minh City) and district land use rights registration offices (under the people's committee of districts).

According to Article 21.1 of Decree 88 and Article 23.1(a) of Circular 17, the application dossier now includes:
(i) the sale and purchase contract for the Property;
(ii) the land use rights certificate and the certificate of ownership of the building;
(iii) copies of relevant tax payment receipts; and maybe
(iv) a map of the Property (if existing documents on the Property do not have such a map).

The timeline for making the update on the existing LURC is 15-30 days from the date of receiving the valid dossier: Circular 20/2010/TT-BTNMT dated 22 October 2010 issued by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.

According to Circular 106/2010/TT-BTC dated 26 July 2010 issued by the Ministry of Finance, the cost for registering the LURC are as follows:
(a) Not over VND100,000 for the issuance of a new LURC; or
(b) Not over VND50,000 for the update/amendment to the existing LURC in the event of 1 (b) above occurs.






Agency: Land Use Right Registration Office 		15-30 days VND 50,000
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