How to attract foreigners to invest in tourism real estate?

	Will real estate market freeze after the pandemic?
	What benefits does real estate enjoy from support package of VND 250,000 billion?
	Real estate sector suffers from Covid-19

There is no law to allow foreignersto owntourism real estate. Photo: Internet.

Although there are many advantages for developing tourism real estate, Vietnam has not promoted these advantages in attracting foreign investment. Recently, Doan Van Binh, Vice Chairman of Vietnam Real Estate Association proposed many solutions to attract foreigners investing in tourism real estate.

According to Binh, foreigners can buy houses in Vietnam butforeign ownership of houses is still difficult due to current regulations.

According to a report of the Ministry of Construction, from the effective date of the 2014 Housing Law to the end of 2019, only 800 foreign organizations and individuals have owned houses in Vietnam located in Hanoi , HCM City, Da Nang and Ba Ria–VungTau.

For other types of real estate except housing such as tourism real estate, there is no law allowing foreigners to own. In fact, transactions of tourism real estate are applied as housing transactions.

Attracting foreign investors to Vietnam's tourism real estate is expected to bring benefits such as contributing to the growth of the tourism real estate market and better liquidity, helping increase the amount of tourists coming to Vietnam, promoting development of tourism and economy; promoting diversification andimproving product quality in the market.

Based on the status of Vietnamese law and the experience of other countries, the representative of Vietnam Real Estate Association proposed sixsolutions related to mechanisms and policies to attract foreignersto investintourism real estate.

First, developing the "Vietnam - Second Home" policy andissuinga permanent residence visa for a period of time equal to property ownership for foreigners to buy real estate in Vietnam.

Second, it is necessary to have clearer regulations on the conditions of foreign real estate ownership. According to Clause 2, Article 14 of the Law on Real Estate Business, "Foreigners are allowed to buy, transfer, rent, and lease-purchase real estate businesses" so foreigners are only allowed to buy houses, not buy other types of real estate such as tourism real estate while demand of foreigners for this product is huge.

“Letting foreigners buy non-residential constructions like tourist real estate will attract a large capital investment in real estate but it can still managed by the conditions and procedures to buy real estate from foreigners, similar to the regulations for housing,” Binh said.

In addition, it is necessary to amend regulations on the rights to buy real estate of foreigners, according to experience of other countries that exclude the types of real estate that foreigners own, including groups of products that affect national defence and security.

"This shows both an open and attractive policy for foreigners and convenience for investors' information seeking process," Binh said.

Third, reviseprovisions of the Land Law with provisions on foreign property ownership. At present, procedures for granting certificates of land use rights, ownership of houses and other land-attached assets to houses for foreign individuals are facing difficulties due to inadequacies and a lack of uniformity among the Land Law 2013, Housing Law and Real Estate Business Law 2014, need to be amended in the near future.

Large real estate enterprises reduce amount of payable tax by hundreds of billions of VND VCN – The amount of tax paid to the State Budget by several large real estate enterprises ...

The next three solutions mentioned by representatives of the Real Estate Association are: visa exemption policy for tourists; promote administrative reform andcreate unity in applying laws. There are policies to promote the country, people, tourism and the real estate market including tourism real estate.