Vietnam’s land transparency – opaque

Vietnam has a legal system on land-related issues but its land transparency is said to be the lowest in the world.

Speaking at a workshop on the Estate Registration Law, Nguyen Thuy Hien, a senior official of the Ministry of Justice, said the real estate market is developing rapidly but the state can’t control market fluctuations so this market always has latent instabilities.

“Black” deals make the real estate market less transparent. According to foreign surveys of 15 countries in Asia-Pacific and 56 countries on all continents, Vietnam receives the lowest number points for transparency of the real estate market.

Hien said the reason is real estate registration in Vietnam is stipulated in various documents and regulations on estate registration are changed very often.

In Vietnam, one plot of land can have many kinds of certificates: land use right certificates based on the Land Law 1987, 1993, 2003, house ownership certificates under Decree 60, etc.

According to experts, the biggest problem in granting land use right certificates is how to determine which are the legitimate of plots of land, as many have been transferred several times.

Information about houses and land is archived at two different state agencies and it causes difficulties for individuals and organisations in searching for real estate information. In the central province of Thua Thien-Hue, land information is managed by two agencies, the Information Centre and Land Use Right Registration Office, which are under the provincial People’s Committee.

Specialists proposed the gathering of land information in one place to help citizens and organisations find real estate information.



source: http://english.vietnamnet.vn/biz/2008/03/775562/