Land & Property

Real estate is the largest single asset class held by foreign investors and foreign individuals in Vietnam. It is also the area where the gap between what foreign owners assume their rights are and what Vietnamese law actually says is widest. I have seen clients who believed they had clear title to a piece of land discover years later that the underlying allocation was procedurally defective. I have seen apartment buyers learn that foreign-ownership caps had been reached before their purchase — invalidating their contract. I have seen development projects stall because a single permit was never properly registered with the local Department of Natural Resources and Environment.

The good news is that almost all of these problems are preventable. Proper due diligence, careful contract drafting, and a clear understanding of the procedural steps required for each transaction give foreign owners and investors the same security that domestic parties enjoy. The country's property law framework — though restrictive — is reasonably stable, professionally administered, and increasingly supportive of foreign participation.

When disputes do arise, they often involve a foreign party against a Vietnamese counterparty (developer, neighbour, contractor, or local authority) with very different views about what the underlying rights are. My role is to translate the foreign client's expectations into the language of Vietnamese property law, identify the precise legal hooks for the desired outcome, and pursue them through the appropriate forum — often a combination of administrative challenges, civil litigation, and direct negotiation with the relevant authority.