What is Condotel in Vietnam? Shall buyers of condotels be issued certificates of ownership for Condotel?
What is Condotel in Vietnam?
Condotel is the abbreviation of Condo & Hotel. Condotel is understood as an apartment hotel in Vietnamese.
Condotel is relatively popular in the world, except for Vietnam.
Operating functions of Condotel are similar to hotels because of being equipped with a booking system and hotel services. However, the difference between Condotel and conventional hotels is that each room of the hotel is only for rent and for apartments in Condotel can be acquired for resort purposes or subleased.
Operating functions of Condotel are similar to apartments because of being fully designed with furniture such as a stove, living room, bedroom with full amenities. However, the difference between Condotel and a regular apartment is that it must be managed and administered by the unit for sublease and daily activities of the hotel.
Shall buyers of condotels be issued certificates of ownership for Condotel in Vietnam?
According to the above regulations, Condotel is a real estate model combined between hotel and apartments and can be used for resort and tourism purposes. Therefore, this real estate model is not considered housing.
Regarding the issuance of certificates of ownership for condotels, Section 2 of Official Dispatch 703/BTNMT-TCQLDD in 2020 issued by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment guides as follows:
2. Issuance of certificates
In case of projects having condotels and tourist villas eligible for transfer according to Law on Real Estate Trading, certifying ownership of the construction on behalf of the transferees shall follow Article 32 of Decree No. 43/2014/ND-CP dated May 15, 2014 of Government on elaborating to Land Law, Clause 22 Article 2 of Decree No. 01/2017/ND-CP dated January 6, 2017 of Government on amendments to Decrees on elaborating to Land Law
Procedures for application for the certificates are specified in Article 70 and Article 79 of Decree No. 43/2014/ND-CP and Article 8 and Article 9 of Circular No. 24/2014/TT-BTNMT dated May 19, 2014 of Minister of Natural Resources and Environment on cadastral dossiers; Clause 8 Article 6 of Circular No. 33/2017/TT-BTNMT dated September 29, 2017 of Minister of Natural Resources and Environment on elaborating to Decree No. 01/2017/ND-CP dated January 6, 2017 of Government on amendments to Decrees on elaborating to Land Law and amendments to Circulars providing guidelines on implementation of Land Law.
Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment hereby requests Departments of Natural Resources and Environment of provinces and central-affiliated cities to examine all approved investment projects and land assignment, land rent under each project to determine land use purpose and land use term according to land laws. In case certificates are eligible for issuance according to land laws and other relevant law provisions, issuance of the certificates for land users and owners of assets attached to land must preserve legal rights and benefits of land users and owners of assets attached to land without changing the scale, objectives or plannings of the projects./.
Accordingly, when meeting fully conditions for transfer, Condotel owners shall be issued certificates of ownership for Condotel
Condotel owners shall be issued certificates of ownership for Condotel when having one of the documents specified in Article 32 of Decree 43/2014/ND-CP supplemented by Clause 22, Article 2 of Decree 01/2017/ND-CP and some regulations amended by Clause 15 Article 1 of Decree 148/2020/ND-CP as follows:
Certification of ownership of non-residential construction facilities
Owners of non-residential construction facilities may have their ownership certified according to the following regulations:
1. Domestic households, individuals and communities must possess one of the following papers:
a) Construction permit or definite-term construction permit which is required in cases where application form construction permits is mandatory under the construction laws.
In case any work is built in contravention of the issued construction permit, a written confirmatory opinion from the authority issuing the construction permit that the construction area in breach of the permit has not threatened safety for works and are now consistent with the construction planning scheme approved by the competent authority;
b/ Papers on ownership of construction facilities, granted by competent authorities in different periods, unless the facilities have been managed and arranged by the State for use;
...
2. Domestic organizations, religious institutions, foreign organizations, foreign individuals and overseas Vietnamese must possess papers prescribed below:
a/ In case of construction of new facilities under law, the project approval decision, project investment decision, investment license, investment certificate or construction permit granted by a competent state agency and the paper on land use rights under the land law or the land lease contract with the land user indicating the land use purpose conformable with the facility construction purpose, are required;
...
4. In the event that a project comprises various buildings as defined in the decision on approval of investment project, the decision on project investment, the license of investment, the certificate of investment, the certificate of investment registration issued by the competent authority, the decision on approval of the detailed construction plan and/or the building permit, the main investor, if qualifying and applying, shall be bestowed by the competent government authority the certificate of land use right with or without ownership of house and other properties attached to land over each building or each area in a building.
Accordingly, it is necessary to consider the situation of the Condotel buyer to determine documents to be issued certificates of ownership for Condotel according to the above provisions.
What are the conditions for transferring Condotels in Vietnam?
Pursuant to Article 49 of the Law on Real Estate Business 2014 stipulating as follows:
Requirements in terms of transfer of all or a portion of real estate project
1. The transferred real estate project shall meet the following requirements:
a) The project is approved by competent agencies; there is a specific planning 1/500 or general ground planning which is approved;
b) The compensation or site clearance of the transferred project or a portion of the transferred project has been finished. Regarding transfer of all infrastructure construction projects, the technical infrastructure must be completed equivalent to schedule as specified in the approved project;
c) The land in the project is not disputed or distrained by a competent agency
d) There is no decision on project or land revocation conducted by a competent agency; in case there is any violation during the progress of the project, the investor must abide by the decision on penalty.
2. The transferor has a Certificate of land regarding all or a portion of the transferred project.
3. The transferee must be a real estate enterprise, acquire financial competence and commit to keep conducting the business as prescribed in regulations of law and ensure that the project is conducted under proper progress and plan.
Accordingly, in order to transfer Condotels in Vietnam, the conditions for transfer of real estate must be met; and the investor must own land use right certificates. At the same time, the investor must be a real estate business enterprise, have financial capacity, and commit to continue the implementation of construction and business investment to ensure the progress and contents of the project.
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