Amendments to the Housing Law (2023) aim to enhance transparency, openness, and safety

Amendments and supplements to certain provisions of the Housing Law 2023 are intended to further institutionalize the Party and State’s guidelines and policies, helping complete the socialist-oriented market economy framework. The changes aim to create a legal environment that is favorable, open, transparent, and safe, with low compliance costs, while also improving the investment and business climate in housing investment and construction.

Deputy Minister of Justice Nguyen Thanh Tu recently chaired the Policy Appraisal Council for the Housing Law (Amended) and the Real Estate Business Law (Amended).

Background on the Housing Law 2023

Briefing notes state that the Housing Law 2023 was passed by the National Assembly on November 27, 2023, and took effect from August 1, 2024 (as amended by Law No. 43/2024/QH15 on the effective date). The law is described as contributing to housing development, ensuring openness and transparency, and aligning with related laws including investment, land, and planning.

After more than a year of implementation, the law has reportedly revealed provisions that need adjustment to better fit requirements for economic and social development, as well as the Party and State’s orientation. The current amendment round is therefore aimed at improving the legal framework toward transparency, openness, and lower compliance costs, while also improving the investment and business environment through simplified administrative procedures and ensuring systemic legal consistency.

Key points raised by the Deputy Minister of Justice

The Deputy Minister emphasized that amendments to the Housing Law are necessary in the new period and are expected to be submitted to the 16th National Assembly for consideration and passage.

• Removing bottlenecks to support growth: The draft largely meets alignment requirements with Party guidelines and State policy, but should more clearly emphasize the objective of removing bottlenecks to promote economic and social growth, particularly in the context of achieving the two-digit growth target.
• Clarifying regulatory authority: The draft should streamline implementation by clearly distinguishing which contents fall under the National Assembly’s authority and which issues can be regulated by the Government, to ensure governance flexibility.
• Social housing tax rates: The Deputy Minister suggested exploring empowering the Government to specify the tax rate in a way that ensures tight control within its authority.
• Constitutionality, legality, and consistency: The design should ensure unity and coherence, simplify provincial-level housing development programs, assess financial and human resource impacts, and continue refining administrative procedures.
• Decentralization and practical problem-solving: The Deputy Minister urged maximizing local authority in addressing issues arising in practice and called for close coordination between the drafting agency and National Assembly agencies, ministries, and localities to finalize the draft before Government consideration.

Three groups of issues to complete the draft

Based on the appraisal, the Deputy Minister proposed focusing on three groups of issues to complete the Draft Law:

1. Scope and regulatory approach: Clarify the scope of regulation and ensure a balance between vertical and horizontal approaches, institutionalize pilot mechanisms, remove bottlenecks, simplify procedures, and enhance decentralization.
2. Policy coherence and feasibility: Review and finalize policy groups to ensure coherence, and strengthen impact assessments to ensure feasibility.
3. Draft dossier completion: Continue finalizing the draft dossier by clarifying the scope, selectively retaining appropriate provisions of the current law, and adding missing content.