Building houses on agricultural land in Vietnam: Things people need to know

Building a house is an important milestone in everyone's life, some people want to buy a plot of roadside land to build houses while others want to build houses on the agricultural land that their parents are cultivating. So is it possible to build houses on agricultural land? If not, what do people need to do?

1. Is it legally to build houses on agricultural land?

Pursuant to Clause 1 Article 10 of the Land Law 2013 of Vietnam on land classification, agricultural land includes: land for cultivation of annual crops, including paddy land and land for cultivation of other annual crops; land for cultivation of perennial trees; land for production forests; land for protection forests; land for special-use forests; land for aquaculture; etc.

Pursuant to Clause 1 Article 6 of the Land Law 2013 of Vietnam, one of the principles on using land is that it must comply with land use master plans and plans, and use for proper purposes”.

On the other hand, pursuant to Clause 1 Article 170 of the Land Law 2013 of Vietnam, “to use the land for proper purposes, in accordance with the land parcel boundaries, in compliance with regulations on use of the depth beneath and the space above the parcel while protecting underground public facilities and in accordance with other relevant laws”.

Thus, people must use land for the right purposes that have been allocated, leased and recognized by the State. Therefore, land users are not allowed to build houses on agricultural land.

2. What does it take to build a house on agricultural land?

Based on explanations of (1), LawNet has concluded that houses cannot be built on agricultural land because of its contrary to the land use purpose. Therefore, in order to be allowed, the land user must change the land use purpose.

Pursuant to Clause 1 Article 57 of the Land Law 2013 of Vietnam, one of the cases in which change of land use purpose requires permission by competent state agencies is the “change of agricultural land to non-agricultural land”.

Thus, people who want to change land use purposes must be approved by the competent agencies.

* Order and procedures for permission for change of land use purpose are stipulated in Article 69 of the Decree No. 43/2014/NĐ-CP of the Government of Vietnam, in which, a land user shall submit a written request for change of land use purpose together with the certificate to the natural resources and environment agency.

After the dossiers submission of the land user, the natural resources and environment agency shall appraise the dossier; conduct field verification and appraise the demand for change of land use purpose; guide the land user in fulfilling financial obligations in accordance with law; propose the competent People’s Committee to permit the change of land use purpose; and direct the updating and modification of the land database and cadastral records.

* Applications for repurposing of land (Article 6 of the Circular No. 30/2014/TT-BTNMT)

Note: When changing the land use purpose, land users shall fulfill financial obligations as prescribed by law. The land use regime and the rights and obligations of land users are those applicable to the type of the land used for the new purpose.

* Collection of land use levy upon change of land use purpose (Article 5 of the Decree No. 45/2014/NĐ-CP)

Conclusion: After changing the land use purpose and fulfilling financial obligations in accordance with relevant laws of Vietnam, people are allowed to build houses on the converted land.

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