Daily Real Estate Briefing: Land Policies, Social Housing and Market Developments

The real estate market is seeing a series of proposals and policies that could directly affect supply, housing prices and access to homes. Notably, removing the specific land price mechanism is expected to boost supply and create more opportunities for homebuyers if approved and implemented consistently. The Government has also proposed a 0.2% tax rate on vacant land and land brought into use late. Another proposal would assign an identification code to each land parcel to trace transaction histories, verify prices and limit the practice of declaring two different prices. The proposal to recover land from projects that remain unused for more than 60 months has also been considered reasonable, although it would be necessary to distinguish between investors deliberately delaying implementation and projects facing legal obstacles. During the revision of the Land Law, Ho Chi Minh City is expected to introduce new regulations on compensation and site clearance and issue a land price table more suited to actual conditions, which could help ease businesses’ funding difficulties.

In the housing segment, the shortage of affordable supply remains a major concern, with a proposal to develop more homes priced at 60-70 million VND per square meter for middle- and low-income earners. Ho Chi Minh City has resolved the issuance of ownership certificates for 43,200 homes in projects, reaching 84% of this year’s target, while 13,949 applications are waiting for fee payment. The city is also converting nearly 110 hectares at the expanded Le Minh Xuan Industrial Park into a social housing project, with the old project expected to end and construction permits for the new project to be issued in early 2027. Hanoi has allocated more than 11,400 square meters of land in Dong Anh for social housing for police officers and soldiers, as well as commercial housing. In Viet Tri, a project worth nearly 1.695 trillion VND, comprising five nine-story buildings, has been planned to provide housing for the People’s Public Security forces.

Market developments show that buyers remain cautious. Land plot prices in Da Nang have started to decline, while apartment transactions in Ho Chi Minh City fell 66% in the third quarter as buyers remained concerned about high interest rates. Many home loans still carry rates above 11% per year despite a recent cooling in interest rates. On the other hand, credit for infrastructure is being accelerated in the Southeast region, where 15 key projects have total loan demand of about 757 trillion VND. In Thu Thiem, the 60 trillion VND Lotte Eco Smart City complex has been launched. Meanwhile, four central Ho Chi Minh City properties linked to Truong My Lan, with starting prices ranging from more than 37 billion to over 202 billion VND, have yet to attract registered buyers. Hanoi is also studying the redevelopment of a nearly 450-hectare urban area in Vinh Hung, focusing on infrastructure, expanded transport, more green space and priority for on-site resettlement. In addition, the concert season in Ho Chi Minh City drove hotel bookings for October 16-17 to more than seven times normal levels, supporting local service businesses.