Ownership certificates to be issued for condotel, officetel projects

Vietnam is set to issue ownership certificates to buyers of condotel and officetel apartments, tourist villas, and shophouses if they are built on commercial land.

The fresh move, expected to improve the legal framework for condotel development in Vietnam, is part of Decree 10, just signed by Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha and effective on May 20, 2023.

The new regulations, which amend decrees under the Vietnamese Land Law, stipulate that if projects home to that kind of housing meet legal requirements on land, construction, and real estate trading, ownership certificates will be issued.

The certificates will be valid for 50 years. As for projects with large investment capital but a long time to regain investment, located in areas with difficult or extremely difficult socio-economic conditions, the validity shall not exceed 70 years.

For years, the development of condotels and officetels has been facing challenges due to legal issues, including the absence of ownership certificates.

The real estate segment appeared in Vietnam in 2014 or so and started to boom in 2016. Legal issues for the projects emerged in 2017 as buyers of housing products at the condotel and officetel projects cannot have an ownership certificate.

By the end of 2022, about 83,000 condotel apartments nationwide already traded are waiting for this certificate, with most of them in resorts using commercial land in a term of 50-70 years, according to Ho Chi Minh City Real Estate Association data. In HCMC alone, more than 10,000 officetel apartments and shophouses are waiting for the certificate.