Selling Property in Vietnam: The Full Guide for Foreign Owners

This article is part of Zagdim’s Vietnam property wiki series. It sets out the rules a foreign owner faces when selling an apartment in Vietnam, most relevantly in Ho Chi Minh City, for anyone who already holds a unit and is weighing a sale.

Here is the short answer. A foreign owner can sell a Vietnam property within the holding period, and the buyer can be a Vietnamese citizen, an overseas Vietnamese with Vietnamese nationality, or another foreigner. The main tax the seller carries is personal income tax (PIT) at 2% of the transfer price. Proceeds in Vietnamese dong can lawfully be converted to foreign currency and transferred out of Vietnam, but the bank reviews documents transaction by transaction, and how the original purchase funds were brought into Vietnam often determines whether the money can leave again later. If you are not in Vietnam, you can still appoint someone to handle the sale, but the power of attorney has to be authenticated first.

Who You Can Sell To, and What Changes by Buyer Type

Yes, a foreign owner can sell. Under the Housing Law (Luật Nhà ở 27/2023/QH15), a foreign individual can hold Vietnamese housing for up to 50 years, counted from the date the ownership certificate is issued, and can apply once to extend that period by up to another 50 years. The holding period is recorded on the certificate itself. Before that period expires, the owner, personally or through someone they appoint, can sell or gift the property to anyone eligible to own housing in Vietnam. If the property is not sold or gifted by the time the period expires, it reverts to state ownership.

The certificate referred to here is the pink book, or the Certificate of House Ownership (sổ hồng). Before selling, check the issue date and expiry date printed on it.

Who buys the property affects both the rights the buyer receives and the extra steps the seller has to take:

Buyer	Can They Buy	Holding Period the Buyer Gets	Extra Steps for the Seller
Vietnamese citizen	Yes	Full ownership rights, not subject to the foreign-owner time limit	None
Overseas Vietnamese (holding Vietnamese nationality)	Yes	Full ownership rights, not subject to the foreign-owner time limit	None
Another foreigner	Yes, provided they hold a valid passport bearing a Vietnam entry stamp at the time of signing	Not clearly stated in current law; unresolved	Check the quota before signing; notify the authority within 3 working days after signing

When the buyer is another foreigner, it is unresolved whether the current Housing Law and Decree 95/2024/NĐ-CP (Nghị định 95/2024/NĐ-CP) give that new buyer the certificate’s remaining holding period or a fresh 50-year term. Vietnamese media coverage from a May 2026 Q&A took the position that it is the remaining period. This point can be confirmed with the Land Registration Office (Văn phòng đăng ký đất đai) or a notary office.

Selling to a foreign buyer also runs into a quota. Across any one apartment building, foreign organizations and individuals combined cannot hold more than 30% of the total residential units; where several blocks share a podium, the cap is calculated separately per block. Before signing, the seller needs to check the quota information on the website of the provincial housing management authority covering the property’s location. After signing, the seller has up to 3 working days to notify that authority, by both email and in writing, of the buyer’s name and the property’s address. A transaction that exceeds the quota has no legal effect: the authority will not issue a certificate, and the seller is also liable for the buyer’s resulting losses.

One more limitation worth knowing runs the other way. In practice, it is generally difficult for a foreigner to buy an apartment directly from a Vietnamese individual seller, because the authorities have not yet built a mechanism to police the 30% cap on that side of a transaction. As a result, units that currently sit within the foreign-owner quota tend to be the ones that trade among foreign buyers.

For more on buyer eligibility, the quota check, and the status of a pending amendment to the Housing Law, see the companion article on selling to a Vietnamese or a foreign buyer.

From Finding a Buyer to Registering the Transfer: The Steps

Before listing the property, confirm it is eligible to be sold at all. Housing Law Article 160 requires that the property has a certificate; has no ownership dispute or pending litigation; is still within its holding period; is not under distraint; is not subject to an emergency or prohibition measure ordered by a court or authority; and is not already the subject of a land recovery decision or a demolition notice.

The sequence then generally runs as follows:

Sign a deposit agreement. A deposit (đặt cọc) is typically 5%-10% of the contract price, though the parties can agree on a different figure. A buyer who defaults can lose the deposit; a seller who defaults generally has to return double the deposit.
Check the quota, if selling to a foreigner. Look this up on the provincial portal before signing.
Notarize the sale and purchase contract. Housing Law Article 164 requires the contract to be notarized or certified, and it takes effect once notarization or certification is complete. This is handled at a notary office (Phòng/Văn phòng công chứng).
Notify the authority, if selling to a foreigner. This is due within 3 working days of signing, to the provincial housing management authority.
File the tax return and pay the fees. The seller declares personal income tax; the buyer pays the registration fee.
Register the change of ownership. Under the Land Law (Luật Đất đai 31/2024/QH15) Article 133, the change must be registered with the authority within 30 days of the transfer. The result is recorded on the existing certificate, or a new certificate is issued if needed.
Receive payment and, if relevant, transfer it out of Vietnam. See below.

For notarization, the seller typically needs a notarization application form, the draft contract, identity documents (a valid passport, for a foreigner), marital status documents (a marriage registration certificate if the property is joint marital property, a single-status certificate if it is separate property, or a divorce judgment or decision if divorced), and the certificate itself. Before signing, the notary will ask to see the original documents for verification; if anything in the file is unclear, the notary can ask for clarification, and can decline to notarize if the matter cannot be clarified.

The situation is different if the certificate has not yet been issued. A property that has not yet been certificated can only have its entire sale and purchase contract transferred, and only before the certificate application has been submitted to the authority; the contract must be free of disputes, and the property must not be under distraint or mortgage. Under the Real Estate Business Law (Luật Kinh doanh bất động sản 29/2023/QH15) Article 51, the developer is required to cooperate with this transfer and cannot charge any fee related to it. In practice, transferring a contract before the certificate is issued requires the developer’s consent and cooperation first, before the contract can be notarized.

One piece of market context, not a case-by-case assessment: CBRE’s second-quarter 2026 data shows that liquidity in the Ho Chi Minh City secondary apartment market has slowed while interest rates stay elevated. This article does not assess the price or timing of any individual sale.

Taxes and Fees When You Sell

The seller’s main tax liability is personal income tax (PIT) at 2% of the transfer price. From July 1, 2026, Vietnam applies the new Law on Personal Income Tax (Luật Thuế thu nhập cá nhân 109/2025/QH15) together with its implementing Decree 253/2026/NĐ-CP (Nghị định 253/2026/NĐ-CP):

Rate. Both residents and non-residents pay transfer price times 2%. An owner who lives abroad, spends fewer than 183 days a year in Vietnam, and has no registered residence or regular leased home in Vietnam is a non-resident by definition.
Transfer price. This is based on the contract price. Where the contract’s land price is below the official land price schedule, or the housing component is below the provincial registration-fee valuation standard, the official standard applies instead.
Buyer paying on the seller’s behalf. The contract can specify that the buyer pays the tax on the seller’s behalf, in which case the buyer handles the filing.

The sole-housing exemption applies only if the owner holds just this one home in Vietnam, has held it for at least 183 days (counted from the certificate’s issue date), transfers the entire property, and self-declares the exemption; off-plan housing (nhà ở hình thành trong tương lai) does not qualify. Whether a non-resident foreign owner can claim this exemption at all is unresolved: the law’s wording refers to “individuals,” but the implementing decree’s provisions for non-residents do not reference the article that sets out the exemption conditions.

Other fees to budget for:

Registration fee (lệ phí trước bạ): 0.5%, paid by the buyer when registering the transfer.
Notarization fee: calculated on a sliding scale by property value under Ministry of Finance Circular 257/2016, capped at VND 70 million per transaction; who pays is a matter of agreement between the parties, though in practice it is usually the seller.
Broker’s commission: typically 1%-2% of the sale price, usually paid by the seller, though this too is a matter of agreement.

For context, in July 2025 the Ministry of Finance floated a proposal to tax 20% of the gain on each transaction instead; that proposal was withdrawn from the draft under review the same year, and the law passed in December 2025 kept the 2%-of-transfer-price basis.

For the full breakdown of these taxes and fees, see the companion article on how much tax you pay when selling property in Vietnam.

Can You Transfer the Sale Proceeds Out of Vietnam?

Yes. Decree 70/2014/NĐ-CP (Nghị định 70/2014/NĐ-CP) Article 7(3) allows a non-resident, as well as a foreigner residing in Vietnam, who has lawful Vietnamese dong income, to buy foreign currency and transfer it out of Vietnam.

Whether a specific transfer goes through, and what documents are needed, is decided by the handling bank, based on its review of each remittance against the actual, reasonable need behind it. A 2015 official document from the State Bank of Vietnam (Ngân hàng Nhà nước Việt Nam) stated that when foreigners buy or sell property, payment must be in Vietnamese dong and made through a bank; the seller can open a dong account to receive the sale proceeds, then buy foreign currency from the bank to remit. That document was issued under a decree that has since been superseded, and whether it is still followed in practice is unresolved. The State Bank has not published a dedicated document checklist for sale proceeds specifically, so the handling bank’s own written list governs.

In practice, the fund trail from the original purchase is what matters most at the remittance stage. If the purchase money went through a licensed bank from the owner’s own overseas account, and the owner kept the remittance slips, the sale contract, and proof of tax paid at the time, there is a paper trail to rely on when selling. If the original purchase went through informal money changers, cash, or a third-party payment, a later transfer out of Vietnam may run into obstacles.

For the documents to prepare and where this tends to get stuck, see the companion article on how to transfer Vietnam property sale proceeds out of the country.

Selling From Abroad: Power of Attorney and Document Authentication

You can appoint someone else to handle the sale. Housing Law Article 20 states that an owner can sell a property personally or through another organization or individual they appoint. In practice, this is done through a notarized power of attorney (hợp đồng ủy quyền) whose scope covers signing the deposit agreement and the sale contract, receiving the proceeds into the owner’s account, filing the tax return, and handling registration and handover.

A power of attorney signed outside Vietnam has to be authenticated first, and which procedure applies depends on the treaty status of the country where it was signed:

If that country is a party to the Hague Apostille Convention, a single apostille is enough. As of September 11, 2026, Vietnam accepts apostilled public documents from treaty partners in place of the older consular legalization process. A document not in Vietnamese still needs a Vietnamese translation that is itself notarized or certified under Vietnamese law.
If that country is not a party to the convention, the document still has to go through consular legalization the old way.

Vietnam’s own published notice gives two examples of how this plays out. The convention applies to Hong Kong, so it is a reasonable inference, though not one Vietnamese authorities have confirmed by name, that Hong Kong documents can use the apostille route. Taiwan is not a party to the convention, so documents signed in Taiwan still require consular legalization, and the exact procedure for this has not been published by Vietnam’s representative office in Taiwan; it is worth confirming directly with the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office of Vietnam. Sellers signing in any other country should check that country’s own status on the Hague Conference’s list of Apostille Convention members to work out which route applies to them.

For the authentication route and what the power of attorney needs to cover, see the companion article on selling Vietnam property from abroad.

What Happens to the Parking Space?

Housing Law Article 144 states that motorbike and bicycle parking spaces belong to all unit owners jointly, while a car parking space is either purchased or leased by an apartment owner, with that purchase or lease set out in the unit’s sale contract or in a separate contract. The law does not say a separate certificate is issued for a car parking space. What happens to the parking space when the unit is sold is not clearly stated in current law; it depends on the terms of whatever parking contract is already in place.

For more on this, see the companion article on whether a Vietnam condo parking space is an ownership right or a usage right, and how it transfers with the unit.

Documents to Gather Before You Appoint Someone to Sell

The certificate: issue date, holding period, the passport number on record, and whether a spouse is listed.
Property status: confirmation from the developer or the building management that there are no unpaid management fees, no mortgage (or that arrangements are in place to discharge one), and no dispute; plus the parking space contract and its transfer terms.
Identity and marital documents: the passport used at the time of purchase. If the passport has since been renewed, whether the notary office will also want to see the old one is not clearly stated in current law. Marital status documents issued abroad need time budgeted for authentication and translation.
Fund records: the international remittance advice for each installment of the purchase price, currency exchange slips, the developer’s receipts and invoices, Vietnamese dong account statements, and records of rent received and tax paid; ask the bank you plan to use for its own written document checklist in advance.
How you will sign: decide whether you will travel to Vietnam to sign in person or use a power of attorney; if it is the latter, start the authentication process early.

FAQ

How Long Must a Foreigner Hold a Vietnam Apartment Before Selling?

Housing Law Article 20 allows the owner to sell or gift the property any time before the holding period on the certificate expires. How long you have held it does affect tax: the sole-housing exemption requires at least 183 days of holding, counted from the certificate’s issue date.

If I Sell to Another Foreigner, How Long Can They Hold the Property?

Whether the new buyer gets the certificate’s remaining holding period or a fresh 50-year term is not clearly stated in current law. Vietnamese media Q&A coverage has taken the position that it is the remaining period. Selling to a Vietnamese citizen or an overseas Vietnamese is not subject to this limit at all.

Can the Contract Specify That the Buyer Pays the 2% Sale Tax?

Yes. Decree 253/2026/NĐ-CP recognizes that the contract can specify the buyer pays the tax on the seller’s behalf, with the tax point set at the time of ownership registration and the buyer handling the filing. The legal taxpayer remains the seller.

If I Live Outside Vietnam, Can the Sale Proceeds Be Transferred Directly to My Overseas Account?

A non-resident foreigner with lawful Vietnamese dong income can buy foreign currency and transfer it out of Vietnam. Before transferring, the bank reviews the documents for each remittance; the receiving account and the documents required follow the handling bank’s own written requirements.

Can I Sell Before the Certificate Has Even Been Issued?

You can transfer the sale contract, but only before the certificate application has been submitted, and only as a transfer of the entire contract, free of disputes. The developer is required to cooperate with the transfer and cannot charge a fee related to it.

Disclaimer

This article is general information, not individual legal, tax, or real estate transaction advice. Legal citations here are Verified by Zagdim against the underlying statutes; points describing market practice are marked separately below. Information current as of October 8, 2026. The Law on Personal Income Tax and Decree 253/2026/NĐ-CP are read here from their English translations; Vietnam’s official current regulations control.

Several points in this article are not directly settled by the text of the law and are flagged as unresolved, not stated as settled fact: the holding period a new foreign buyer receives when a foreigner resells to another foreigner; whether a non-resident foreign owner can claim the sole-housing tax exemption; whether the State Bank’s 2015 official document is still followed in practice; whether Hong Kong documents can in fact use the apostille route; the consular legalization procedure for Taiwan documents; and how a parking space transfers with the unit. The deposit percentage, broker’s commission, and the practical points on fund records and remittance obstacles reflect how law firms and industry practitioners describe current market practice. A draft amendment to the Housing Law was still before the National Assembly as of October 2026 and had not passed; related rules may change.

Glossary

Housing Law (Luật Nhà ở 27/2023/QH15): The law governing housing ownership and transactions in Vietnam, in effect since August 1, 2024.
Pink book / Certificate of House Ownership (sổ hồng): Vietnam’s property ownership certificate; a foreign owner’s holding period is recorded on it.
Notary office (Phòng/Văn phòng công chứng): The office that notarizes sale contracts; these can be public or private.
Deposit (đặt cọc): The sum a buyer pays a seller before signing, to confirm intent to transact.
Power of attorney (hợp đồng ủy quyền): The contract by which an owner appoints someone else to handle a sale on their behalf.
Land Registration Office (Văn phòng đăng ký đất đai): The authority that registers changes in land and property ownership.
Registration fee (lệ phí trước bạ): The fee paid when registering a change of ownership.
Apostille: A single authentication, recognized among Hague Apostille Convention members, certifying that a signature and seal on a public document are genuine.
Vietnamese dong (VND): Vietnam’s official currency.