Vietnamese real estate firms are banking on remittances from overseas Vietnamese to boost the local real estate market when the change to Vietnam’s Land Law takes effect next year. The changes will permit Vietnamese living overseas to buy property in Vietnam.
This may, however, be wishful thinking. It is already quite common for overseas Vietnamese to invest in real estate in Vietnam. Generally, if they cannot acquire property in their own name they will do so through a family member still living in the country. In this context, it’s not clear that when the new law comes into effect this part of it will make all that much of a difference.
That said, even the smallest improvement from the new law would likely be very welcome.
Of note, Vietnam’s real estate industry has been struggling for the last two years in the wake of the Evergrande crisis in China in 2022. This led Vietnam to take a long hard look at its own real estate industry in which it found the prevalent misuse of investor funds, particularly those acquired through the bond market, and that a number of real estate firms were grossly over-leveraged. These revelations then went on to spook investors and consequently, at the beginning of 2023, it had become very challenging for real estate firms to access capital.
See also: Vietnam’s Real Estate Market Recovery 2024: Unpacked