Nguyen Van Dinh, vice chairman of the Vietnam Real Estate Association, said that many real estate projects that have stalled because of legal problems will have to wait more for new regulations.

Delay of land law puts issues into spotlight, illustration photo

“The market has been quiet for a few years because of many unclear regulations, and this postponement could make them more discouraged,” Dinh said.

However, Dinh also believes that it is reasonable to delay the draft because some contents cannot be completely resolved if enacted in the draft version, such as issues of land allocation, land lease, site clearance, and land compensation.

“The fact that the draft revised law has not been approved for further consideration is reasonable because while passing it is extremely urgent, it also cannot be rushed to avoid negative consequences,” Dinh said.

Nguyen Hoang, an individual broker in Thu Duc of Ho Chi Minh City, also said that the delay was reasonable because many contradictions remain. “If it is passed hastily without carefully evaluating all the details, it may have an unwanted impact on the market, so more time is needed for further considerations,” Hoang said.

He said businesses and buyers hope that the revised law will cover all existing outstanding aspects, especially the issue of land allocation.

“In terms of site clearance, many projects have cleared 95 per cent already. The rest is state-owned land, but there is no solution in the current law for this situation and it leads to deadlock for many years. All of these issues need to be legislated and regulated in detail before the project can be implemented,” he added.

On November 29, after the closing session of the National Assembly (NA), General Secretary Bui Van Cuong held a press conference to announce the results of the sixth session of the 15th NA. Cuong confirmed that both the amended Law on Land and the amended Law on Credit Institutions were not passed.

“This delay shows the caution and the responsibility of the NA caused by many different opinions remaining in the discussion process and those need more time for consideration, especially assessing the impact of policies and all related laws must not be contradicted and overlapped,” Cuong said.

He added that the NA Party Committee is reporting to competent authorities to organise an extraordinary meeting in early January to consider and approve the two revised laws.

Regarding the remaining issues in the draft revised Law on Land, it may take some time to research and evaluate the impact thoroughly, Standing member of the NA Economic Committee Pham Thi Hong Yen said that the committee gave opinions and agreed on a revision plan for 12 issues. However, there still exist several major issues that need to continue to be researched to have optimal solutions.

“Specifically was the issue of implementing commercial housing, projects supporting housing, commercial and service businesses, and the relationship between cases of land repossession and land use rights negotiation to implement socioeconomic development projects without using state budget capital,” Yen said.

Other issues were available land management and exploitation, applying land valuation methods, using land for national defence and security combined with economic development, and the case in which an economic organisation with foreign investment capital receives a real estate project transfer.

“The goal of delaying the passage of the law is to ensure quality, avoid problems during implementation, and best ensure the rights and interests of the government, investors, and individuals,” Yen said.

The current Law on Land was approved and put into operation in 2013.