Vietnam Housing Bill Puts Rentals at Centre of Reform, With Provincial Rent Limits and Fewer Approvals

A new route to housing without buying

Vietnam's proposed Housing Law would give rental housing its own chapter, put 20 of 21 housing administrative procedures under local authorities and allow provinces to set limits on rents. Justice Minister Hoang Thanh Tung presented the bill to the National Assembly on October 22, 2026, alongside changes to social housing, apartment reconstruction and developer obligations.

The proposal comes as the Ministry of Construction reports that Vietnam completed 8,314 rental homes in the first nine months of 2026, within a combined total of 46,497 social and rental homes. Rental homes therefore represented about 18% of those completions. The ministry expects the number of rental homes completed during the year to reach 18,049.

The bill would organise housing policy around four groups: commercial housing, rental housing, official housing for people serving in public posts, and policy housing supported or created by the State. Social housing, resettlement housing and housing for the armed forces would sit within the policy housing group.

For households unable to afford a purchase, the central change is a clearer framework for building homes intended to remain available for rent. For developers, it offers incentives and fewer administrative steps, alongside provincial control over rental prices. These measures remain proposals before lawmakers; the October 22 presentation gave no date for a final vote or commencement.

The National Assembly's Law and Justice Committee supports a comprehensive revision, while seeking stronger protection against speculation and misuse of housing support. Its chairman, Phan Chi Hieu, presented the committee's scrutiny findings, including concerns about who receives subsidised housing and who pays for infrastructure.

Why rental housing is becoming a priority

Deputy Minister of Construction Nguyen Van Sinh has described a shift from concentrating mainly on commercial housing toward developing commercial, social and rental housing together. Workers, students, public employees and members of the armed forces are among the groups the government wants the rental market to serve.

The ministry identifies a mismatch between investment and household needs: expensive housing continues to attract capital, while affordable homes remain scarce in major urban centres. Housing prices have also risen faster than incomes, and the rental sector has attracted insufficient investment to meet demand.

Sinh, speaking at a real estate forum, described the accumulated difficulties facing the market:

"These are issues that have accumulated over time and cannot be resolved overnight, but they require immediate and coordinated action," Mr. Sinh said.

A September 29 HM&P legal analysis, written by lawyers Nguyen Van Phuc and Ngo Tuong Vi, cites Ministry of Construction data counting about 60,900 homes by June 2026 across specified rental categories. Those categories include social housing, worker accommodation, student housing and older housing held as public assets. The figure covers those listed groups rather than every privately rented home in Vietnam.

How the proposal reached parliament

The draft presented on October 22 contains 13 chapters and 130 articles, 68 fewer than the 198 articles in the 2023 Housing Law. The version reviewed in September contained 132 articles. The government says the revision retains useful rules while removing duplication and leaving more detailed implementation to government regulations.

The main steps leading to the parliamentary presentation were:

• May 2024: The Secretariat issued Directive No. 34-CT/TW on social housing development, whose implementation the Construction Ministry plans to review.
• September 30, 2026: The Law and Justice Committee's standing body reviewed the draft at the National Assembly building, with Phan Chi Hieu presiding.
• October 2, 2026: The National Assembly Standing Committee discussed the housing and real estate business bills.
• October 15, 2026: The Construction Ministry released housing delivery figures at its third quarter press briefing in Hanoi.
• October 22, 2026: The National Assembly heard the housing proposal and scrutiny findings during its second session.

How rents and investment would work

The rental chapter would cover eligible tenants, public and private financing, project requirements, investment procedures, developer incentives, rental prices and property management. It also includes accommodation for experts and workers outside industrial parks.

Developers and tenants would agree rents within a framework set by the provincial People's Committee. The proposed calculation would include recovery of construction investment, maintenance, operations, taxes, fees, other reasonable costs and expected profit under the business plan.

Provincial limits and project costs would therefore operate together. A developer would need enough income to maintain the property and recover its investment, while the province would set the permitted price range. The incentive package and the local rental framework would both affect whether a project can provide housing at an affordable rent.

At the September review, the draft included exemption from land use fees for rental projects financed without state capital. The ministry's wider proposed framework also includes land rent exemptions, tax relief, preferential loans and support for connections to technical infrastructure. Developers could use part of a project for commercial housing or services to supplement revenue, subject to legal conditions.

Where new rental homes would go

The ministry wants rental housing tied more closely to employment, education and transport. Proposed planning requirements would reserve land in specified urban wards, around industrial parks and export processing zones, near universities and colleges, and in areas developed around public transport.

Transit Oriented Development, or TOD, means concentrating homes and services around transport connections. For a worker or student, the practical benefit would be the possibility of living closer to a job, campus or transit stop, provided local plans also deliver the required infrastructure.

Local authorities have been asked to assess demand among different tenant groups, allocate suitable land and consider direct public investment. Other options include bringing public housing assets into use and acquiring homes from developers. Provincial authorities would also organise resources for compensation, resettlement and land preparation.

The Law and Justice Committee wants clearer priority rules, especially for homes built with public money. It also wants incentives to produce benefits for tenants facing housing difficulties, with transparent checks on eligibility to prevent misuse of support.

What construction figures reveal

The ministry's October figures show a large development pipeline alongside a smaller volume of finished homes. In the first nine months of 2026, 170 social and rental housing projects delivered 46,497 homes: 38,183 for sale or purchase through instalments under a lease arrangement, and 8,314 for rent.

Construction began on another 128 projects containing 183,293 homes, including 42,801 rental units. Rentals accounted for about 23% of those starts, compared with about 18% of completions during the same period. Building work started on a larger share of rentals than the share being delivered.

The ministry expects 87,601 social and rental homes to be completed across 2026, including 18,049 rentals. Its wider social housing programme had 947 projects containing 910,933 homes, with estimated investment of 841.338 trillion dong. Of those homes, 216,626 were complete, 363,065 were under construction and 331,242 had investment approval.

Those three stages together amount to about 91% of the goal of at least 1 million social housing units by 2030. Completed units alone equal about 22% of that minimum target. Earlier in 2026, the programme stood at 781 projects containing 720,055 units, or 72% of the target across development stages.

Vietnam completed 102,633 social housing units in 2025, exceeding its annual target of 100,275 by 2,358. During the first five months of 2026, construction began on 34 projects with nearly 30,000 units. The ministry has asked localities to put housing targets, project schedules and resources into their economic and social development plans.

Social housing resale and infrastructure obligations

The bill would bring suitable pilot policies from National Assembly Resolution 201/2025/QH15 and Government Resolution 66.15/2026/NQ-CP into the Housing Law. One proposed rule would allow a social housing buyer to resell after five years from full payment, once an ownership certificate has been issued, but only to another eligible social housing buyer.

Personal income tax would follow tax legislation. The proposed resale arrangement would keep the home within the pool serving eligible households even after the initial holding period.

Provincial authorities would decide how commercial housing developers meet obligations to support social and rental housing. The options are land inside the development, land at another location, or an equivalent payment. The government would issue detailed rules.

The committee is concerned that the draft removes an express requirement concerning investment in technical infrastructure when developers provide land or pay the equivalent amount. Roads, drainage and utility connections make land usable for housing, so the allocation of those costs directly affects a project's readiness and expense.

The government proposes detailed regulations on calculating infrastructure costs when an obligation is fulfilled. The committee wants the drafting body to reconsider the wording so that commercial developers retain an appropriate share of responsibility.

Fewer approvals bring new protection questions

The housing bill would leave only the procedure for leasing official housing with the Ministry of Construction. Local authorities would handle the other 20 administrative procedures. It also proposes removing three of four business conditions, simplifying application documents and shortening processing times.

Social housing pricing illustrates the proposed move away from advance approval. The HM&P lawyers describe a mechanism under which developers would prepare prices, hire a qualified consultant to verify them and approve the sale and lease purchase prices themselves, replacing appraisal by a provincial agency.

Phuc and Vi recommend inspections targeted at pricing risks, records showing how prices were calculated, disclosure of major cost components, and responsibility for verification firms. They also propose price adjustments or refunds where later checks find improper calculations. These are safeguards recommended in their analysis.

The lawyers also flag mortgage provisions. Article 182 of the current Housing Law requires owners to notify tenants in writing before mortgaging a rented home and tell the lender that it is leased. The draft's shorter mortgage provision would remove that express advance notification requirement from the Housing Law.

Other provisions would allow some transactions, including social housing sales or lease purchases, to proceed without first releasing a mortgage if the relevant parties agree. A mortgage gives a lender security over property if a debt is unpaid. Buyers accepting such an arrangement would need clear information about the debt, the lender's rights and the conditions for releasing their home.

Old apartments, ownership and public service housing

Apartment renovation and reconstruction would be linked more closely to urban redevelopment. The draft adds a build-transfer form of public private partnership, known as BT, as another investment route and simplifies developer selection. In a BT arrangement, a private investor builds infrastructure or facilities and transfers them to the public authority under the agreed terms.

The September draft tied an apartment building's lifespan to construction law and addressed owners' financial participation in rebuilding when that lifespan expires. The October presentation also described protecting property rights when buildings are demolished.

Revised management rules would clarify common and private property, parking, and the powers and duties of management boards, developers, owners, residents and operators. The committee identified disputes over shared property and conflicts between residents and management boards as problems needing stronger solutions.

Official housing provisions would add rent exemptions for officials, public employees and workers assigned, rotated or seconded to especially disadvantaged communes, border areas and islands. Housing for the armed forces could use defence or security land planned for release from those purposes, or land no longer required for them.

The draft also addresses Vietnamese citizens who hold another nationality. The HM&P analysis says they would be treated as Vietnamese citizens in housing transactions when using their Vietnamese nationality, whether living inside or outside Vietnam. The lawyers seek clearer documentation and registration rules for applying that status.

Land controls and the companion property bill

Article 6 of the housing draft would require developers in wards belonging to special class, class I and class II urban areas to build homes for sale, lease purchase or rent. In other areas, provinces would decide where developers must build and where residential plots may be transferred for individuals to construct homes, using government criteria.

The Law and Justice Committee wants urban plot subdivision and sales kept to a minimum, especially in large cities. It also seeks clearer rules for the Housing Fund's capital sources, asset accounting and management, consistent with state budget legislation.

The companion Real Estate Business Law draft contains 10 chapters and 61 articles, 22 fewer than the 2023 law. It proposes electronic identifiers for covered properties, people, organisations and other subjects, alongside a mechanism to secure the remaining 5% of a property contract's value through a blocked account or an arrangement agreed by the parties.

Agriculture and Environment Minister Trinh Viet Hung explained provisions allowing provincial People's Committees to approve transfers of all or part of projects whose investment policy was originally approved by the prime minister. District responsibilities would move to commune authorities under the system of provincial and commune government.

The property business bill would remove four of 12 administrative procedures, simplify seven others, and remove or simplify nine of 31 investment and business conditions. The housing bill would also remove seven entries from its list of prohibited conduct, handling them through specific provisions or other legislation.

Lawmakers have asked for careful alignment between the housing, real estate business, land, tax and budget rules. The HM&P lawyers also seek firm limits on transitional exceptions allowing some social housing projects to receive investors without repeating selection. The central implementation task is to make faster approvals work alongside clear responsibility for prices, land, infrastructure and residents' rights.

Key Points

• The October 22 housing bill has 13 chapters and 130 articles, including a dedicated rental housing chapter.
• Developers and tenants would agree rents within provincial price limits.
• Local authorities would handle 20 of 21 housing administrative procedures.
• Vietnam completed 8,314 rental homes in the first nine months of 2026 and expects 18,049 across the year.
• Social housing resale after five years from full payment would require an ownership certificate and an eligible buyer.
• Lawmakers seek clearer tenant priorities, infrastructure obligations, funding rules and safeguards against misuse of housing support.
• The proposals also cover apartment reconstruction, mortgage arrangements, land controls and property transactions.