Decree 54/2026/ND-CP: Amendments to Regulations on Housing and Real Estate Business

Scope and Legal Basis

Decree No. 54/2026/ND-CP, issued by the Government on February 9, 2026, amends provisions in Decree 96/2024/ND-CP (real estate business), Decree 95/2024/ND-CP (housing), Decree 98/2024/ND-CP (condominium renovation and reconstruction), and Decree 100/2024/ND-CP (social housing development and management), together with two Ministry of Construction decentralization decrees, 140/2025/ND-CP and 144/2025/ND-CP.

General Administrative Procedure Principles

• Applications may be submitted in person, online, or through the postal service.
• Information already held in the national population database or specialized databases is replaced by the personal identification number or specialized code once those systems are operational.
• Overseas Vietnamese and foreigners residing in Vietnam who do not yet have an identification number may still submit copies of documents.
• Results can be issued electronically, carrying the same legal value as paper documents; both forms are provided together if requested.

Chapter I - Amendments to Decree 96/2024/ND-CP (Real Estate Business)

• Shortens to 7 days the time the Ministry of National Defense and the Ministry of Public Security have to comment when a developer wants to sell or lease-purchase off-plan housing to foreign organizations or individuals for a project that was not previously reviewed for this purpose.
• Revises the contract-transfer form (Appendix XI); transfer contracts must be prepared in at least 6 copies.
• Simplifies documentation proving technical infrastructure such as electricity, water supply, drainage, and waste collection.
• Real estate brokerage firms only need to meet office and premises conditions under general enterprise law, replacing a separate condition.
• Termination or suspension of trading floors and brokerage firms now follows enterprise law; notices must be sent to the Department of Construction for publication.
• Updates terminology in several appendix forms, including guarantee commitments and provincial People's Committee signing authority.

Chapter II - Amendments to Decree 95/2024/ND-CP (Housing Law)

• Adds principles for determining the list of housing projects foreigners may own, including projects with only part of their area outside defense and security zones.
• Removes the requirement to publish population-equivalent-to-a-ward data on government websites.
• Adds new Article 37a setting out the formula for state-built resettlement housing sale, lease, and lease-purchase prices, covering construction costs, land-use fees, maintenance costs, and value-added tax.
• Shortens processing deadlines under Article 51, cutting 15 days to 10 days and 30 days to 20 days.
• Allows commune-level People's Committees to act as owner representative and manager of state-owned housing when authority is decentralized or delegated.
• Adds new Article 86a: if a building management unit and condominium owners cannot agree on a service fee, the unit may provisionally collect the prior year's fee, capped at the price bracket set by the provincial People's Committee.

Chapter III - Amendments to Decree 98/2024/ND-CP (Condominium Renovation and Reconstruction)

• Applies the same multi-channel filing and electronic-results principles as Chapters I and II.
• Provincial People's Committees set the maximum period for negotiating land-use-right transfers, which must fall before the approved relocation and demolition schedule.
• Expands the circumstances under which a developer is selected through bidding, including when no investor registers or owners cannot agree on a developer.
• Cuts several Article 48 deadlines to a maximum of 5 working days and adjusts which agencies are consulted during appraisal.

Chapter IV - Amendments to Decree 100/2024/ND-CP (Social Housing)

• Adds general administrative procedure principles applying across numerous social housing and armed-forces-housing provisions.
• Shortens confirmation of housing and income eligibility to 7 days, handled by the land registration agency or commune-level police.
• Rewrites the entire process for selling, leasing, and lease-purchasing social housing (Article 38) and housing for the armed forces (Article 68): public disclosure of project information, application intake, eligible-applicant lists, a lottery when eligible applications exceed available units, priority groups, contract signing, and public disclosure of buyer lists.
• Revises rules on reselling social housing to the developer or the National Housing Fund, and on settling the original sale contract before resale.
• Adds a pricing formula for selling occupied social housing to sitting tenants on a priority basis.

Chapter V - Amendments to Decentralization Decrees

• Amends Decree 140/2025/ND-CP: the provincial People's Committee's role as owner representative for state-owned housing may be carried out by the commune-level People's Committee when delegated.
• Amends Decree 144/2025/ND-CP: adds authority for the Chief of the Party Central Office over official-duty housing projects and repeals Article 23.

Effective Date and Transitional Provisions

• The decree takes effect from February 9, 2026.
• For applications filed before the effective date but not yet resolved, receiving agencies may not request additional paper documents that have since been simplified, unless the relevant database is not yet operational.
• Condominium management units already certified as qualified before Decree 95/2024/ND-CP took effect are exempt from certain additional filing requirements, absent a change in their information.
• Social housing applications already received under Decree 100/2024/ND-CP continue to be processed under the old rules; applications not yet received follow the new rules.
• Eligibility documents for social housing policies issued before the effective date remain valid for 12 months from their confirmation date.