Ms. Khuyen's business bought a commercial floor in a building, did not use all the area and wanted to lease part of this commercial floor area to another unit. Ms. Khuyen asked, is her business allowed to lease? What is the definition of small-scale, irregular real estate leasing?

The Ministry of Construction responded to this issue as follows:

Clause 1, Article 3 of the 2014 Law on Real Estate Business stipulates:

"1. Real estate business is the investment of capital to carry out construction activities, purchase, receive transfers for sale, transfer; lease, sublease, lease-purchase real estate; provide real estate brokerage services; real estate trading floor services; real estate consulting services or real estate management for profit purposes".

Clause 1, Point a, Article 11 of the 2014 Law on Real Estate Business stipulates:

"1. Domestic organizations and individuals are allowed to conduct real estate business in the following forms:

a) Purchase houses and construction works for sale, lease, lease-purchase;".

Clause 1 and Clause 2, Article 10 of the 2014 Law on Real Estate Business (amended and supplemented at Point a, Clause 2, Article 75 of the 2020 Investment Law) stipulate:

"1. Organizations and individuals conducting real estate business must establish an enterprise or cooperative (hereinafter referred to as an enterprise), except for the case specified in Clause 2 of this Article.

2. Organizations, households and individuals selling, transferring, leasing or leasing-purchasing small-scale real estate on an irregular basis are not required to establish an enterprise but must declare and pay taxes in accordance with the provisions of law".

Article 5 of Decree No. 02/2022/ND-CP dated January 6, 2022 of the Government detailing the implementation of a number of articles of the Law on Real Estate Business stipulates:

"Article 5. Organizations, households and individuals selling, transferring, leasing or leasing-purchasing small-scale real estate on an irregular basis.

Organizations, households and individuals selling, transferring, leasing, or leasing-purchasing real estate as prescribed in Clause 2, Article 10 of the Law on Real Estate Business are not required to meet the conditions prescribed in Article 4 of this Decree, including:

1. Agencies and organizations selling houses, construction works, or transferring land use rights due to bankruptcy, dissolution, or separation in accordance with the provisions of law.

2. Agencies and organizations selling, transferring, leasing, or leasing-purchasing real estate that is public property in accordance with the provisions of law.

3. Credit institutions, foreign bank branches, asset management companies of credit institutions (AMCs), and asset management companies of Vietnamese credit institutions (VAMCs) selling houses, construction works, transferring land use rights, or transferring real estate projects that are being used as guarantees or mortgages to recover debts in accordance with the provisions of law.

4. Organizations, households, and individuals selling houses, construction works, transferring land use rights according to the decision of the Court or competent state agencies when resolving disputes, complaints, and denunciations.

5. Organizations, households, and individuals selling, leasing, or leasing-purchasing houses, construction works under their legal ownership, transferring, leasing, or subleasing land use rights under their legal ownership.

6. Organizations, households, and individuals selling, leasing, leasing-purchasing, or transferring real estate that they have invested in and constructed but is not a real estate construction investment project for business purposes according to the provisions of law".

The content of Ms. Khuyen's question has also been amended in the 2023 Law on Real Estate Business, effective from August 1, 2024.