Property Registration

Make an application for the transfer of land use rights and ownership of assets attached to the land

Agency: Land Registration Office under the Department of Natural Resources and Environment (LRO)

Parties obtain a Land Use Right Certificate (LURC) transfer contract (standard form) for free at the notary’s office or online at http://moj.gov.vn/.

At the LRO, the buyer will search for the ownership information.

The dossier includes: (i) LURC, (ii) decision or resolution of the highest decision-making body of the company regarding the LUR transfer, and (iii) company’s legal status documents and the construction works.

Time and cost: 1 day, VND 4,000

Notary checks for any encumbrances on the property

Agency: Notary Public

Under Article 46 of the Law on Notarization, the notary public is required to check the contents of the transfer agreement and if it does not contradict social ethics or violate laws and regulations. In practice, the notary public will also verify the encumbrances on the property with the LRO before notarizing the transfer contract. If the property is subject to an encumbrance, the notary public will not conduct the notarization unless otherwise agreed by the existing mortgagee (or any other owner of the burden) and the transferee. Under Article 62 of the Law on Notarization, the Department of Justice and LRO have a system for the notaries to check the encumbrance on the transferred property before notarizing the contract. There is no cost arising from such searches. The system is not accessible to the public.

Time and cost: Less than 1 day (online), no charge

The buyer and seller sign the contract which will be witnessed and certified by a notary located in the same area as the property.

Agency: Notary Public

The property transfer contract shall be made in duplicate, one for the seller and another for the buyer. The public notary must notarize the property transfer contract (according to Article 167.3 of Land Law No. 45/2013/QH13 of the National Assembly dated November 29, 2013, which became effective from July 1, 2014 (the “New Land Law”)). The dossier submitted to the public notary office includes:

• Request for notarization of the contract (in standard form);
• Property transfer contract;
• Documents evidencing the transferor’s title to the land and warehouse (e.g. land use right certificate for the 557.4 square meters land and construction works ownership certificate for the warehouse or the certificate of land use right and assets attached to the land for both the land and the warehouse);
• Business registration certificate of the transferor and the transferee;
• Copies of other documents relevant to the property transfer contract (Article 40.1 of the Law on Notarization).

The time-limit for notarization shall not exceed two working days. In the case of a complicated contract or transaction, this time-limit may not extend ten working days (Article 43.2 of the Law on Notarization).

If the value of property or the value of contract is from VND 1,000,000,000 and VND 3,000,000,000, the notary fee is VND 1,000,000 +0.06% of the value of property or the value of contract exceeding VND 1,000,000,000. Circular No. 257/2016/TT-BTC dated November 11, 2016 of the Ministry of Finance, amended by Circular No. 111/2017/TT-BTC dated October 20, 2017 of the Ministry of Finance, prescribes regulations on notarial and authentication service fees, fees for verification of eligibility for practicing as a notary, fees for verification of eligibility for operating private notary office, charges for processing of applications for notary card, and the collection, transfer, management and use thereof.     

Time and cost: 3 days, VND 2,041,509.73 (VND 1 million + 0.06% of the amount exceeding VND 1 billion)

The parties pay income tax on the assignment of the land-use right and the registration fee at the relevant District Department of Taxation

Agency: District Department of Taxation

The registration fee (paid by the transferee) is 0.5% of the property value (Article 7.1 of Decree No. 140/2016/ND-CP dated October 10, 2016, amended by Decree No. 20/2019/ND-CP dated February 21, 2019, of the Government on registration fee, and Article 4.1 of Circular No. 301/2016/TT-BTC of the Ministry of Finance dated November 15, 2016, guiding on registration fee).

From January 1, 2016, the tax rate of the income tax from the assignment of land use right (paid by the transferor) is 20% (Article 10.1 and Article 3.2 of Law on Corporate Income Tax No. 14/2008/QH12 dated June 3, 2008, as amended by Law No. 32/2013/QH13 dated June 19, 2013 and Law No. 71/2014/QH13 dated November 26, 2014 (the “CIT Law”)). The declaration and payment of CIT must be done no later than ten days from the date of arising of tax obligation (Articles 10.3(d) and 26.2 of Circular No. 156/2013/TT-BTC dated November 6, 2013).

The transfer of land use right is not subject to value-added tax but a transfer of the warehouse is subject to value-added tax rate of 10% (Articles 5.6 and 8.3 of Law on Value Added Tax No. 13/2008/QH12 dated June 3, 2008, as amended by Law No. 31/2013/QH13 dated June 19, 2013, Law No. 71/2014/QH13 dated November 26, 2014, and Law No. 106/2016/QH13 dated April 6, 2016).

Time and cost: 28 days, VND 13,679,247.73 (0,5% of property value)

The land-use right transferee shall register the right to use land

Agency: Land Registration Office under the Department of Natural Resources and Environment (LRO)

The LRO is the prescribed authority. Currently, there are many LRO in Ho Chi Minh City, including the provincial LRO (under the Department of Nature Resources and Environment of Ho Chi Minh City) and district LRO (under the people’s committee of districts). According to Article 17.1(a) and (k) of Circular No. 23/2014/TT-BTNMT of the MONRE providing for land use right or house and land-attached asset ownership certificates (effective as of July 5, 2014), in order to obtain the LURC, the transferee may request the LRO to issue a new LURC or an update on the existing LURC.

Issuance of a new LURC

Dossier: According to Art. 8.1 of Circular No. 24/2014/TT-BTNMT, as amended by Circular No. 02/2015/TT-BTNMT dated January 27, 2015 and Circular No. 33/2017/TT-BTNMT dated September 19, 2017, of the MONRE providing for cadastral records (“Circular 24”), the application dossier for the issuance of new LURC includes (i) application for issuance of LURC (in a stipulated form); (ii) one of the documents prescribed in Art. 100 of the New Land Law and Article 18 of Decree 43; (iii) one of the documents specified in Articles 31, 32, 33, 34 of Decree 43 (i.e. property ownership certification, etc.); (iv) copies of documents evidencing for fulfillment of relevant financial obligation; and (v) a map describing the property.

Timeline: 30 days from the day of receipt of the proper dossier (Article 61.2(a) of Decree 43)

Update on the existing LURC

Dossier: According to Article 7.2 of Circular 33/2017/TT-BTNMT, the application dossier for the update on existing LURC includes: (i) application (in a stipulated form); (ii) the property transfer contract; and (iii) the original LURC and the certificate of ownership of the warehouse.

Timeline: 10 days from the date of receipt of the proper dossier (Article 61.2.(i) of Decree 43). However, practitioners confirmed that obtaining the updated version of the existent LURC could take up to 21 days.

Time and cost: 21 days. VND 50,000 (Update existing LUR Certificate)

According to Decision No. 52/2016/QD-UBND of the People’s Committee of Ho Chi Minh City dated December 10, 2016, the fee applicable to an organization having a land use right and assets attached to land with an area from 500 sqm to 1,000 sqm is the following:

• VND 350,000 for the issuance of a new LURC; or
• VND 50,000 for the update/amendment to the existing LURC.