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SUMMARY
No. A normal foreign individual cannot directly buy an ordinary land plot in Binh Duong and register the land-use rights personally.
The important split is between land and housing. Vietnam can allow a foreigner to own qualifying housing inside an approved commercial project without giving that person a general right to acquire residential land-use rights elsewhere.
That is why a foreign buyer may legally own an apartment, villa or townhouse in an eligible project while being unable to buy an empty plot or an ordinary private house across the road. The project's legal status matters more than the marketing label attached to the property.
Foreign ownership is also constrained by quotas. Apartments are generally subject to a 30% foreign ceiling at the relevant building or block level, while qualifying villas and townhouses share a separate limit of 250 foreign-owned independent houses within the relevant 10,000-person area.
For most foreign individuals, qualifying housing ownership is time-limited rather than indefinite: normally up to 50 years from certification, with the possibility of one extension of up to another 50 years. A foreign spouse of a Vietnamese citizen who resides in Vietnam can have substantially stronger housing rights.
A Vietnamese company with foreign investment can obtain significant land rights for legitimate projects, particularly industrial, manufacturing, logistics or development activity. Those rights belong to the company, though; setting up a company does not quietly convert its foreign shareholder into the personal owner of a residential plot.
People of Vietnamese origin living overseas sit in a much stronger legal category than ordinary foreign nationals. The newer Land Law broadened their ability to acquire residential land-related rights, so a foreign passport alone does not always tell us which rules apply.
Nominee arrangements are the obvious danger zone. If a Vietnamese friend, employee or partner appears on the land certificate, that person holds the registered land-use right even when the foreigner supplied all of the money.
Binh Duong's incorporation into the enlarged Ho Chi Minh City changed the administrative map, not the underlying foreign-ownership rules. It does mean that newer approvals and project information may now come through Ho Chi Minh City authorities while older developments still have records issued by former Binh Duong agencies.
The practical test is therefore very specific: check the exact property type, project approval, building or area quota, seller's right to transfer, ownership term and certificate structure before paying a large deposit. “Foreigners can buy here” is nowhere near precise enough for an actual transaction.
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Can foreigners buy land in Binh Duong?
Can foreigners directly buy land in Binh Duong today?
No. A normal foreign individual still cannot directly buy an ordinary land plot in Binh Duong and register the land-use rights in his or her own name.
Vietnam's current Land Law keeps a clear distinction between foreign individuals and the people or entities allowed to receive land-use rights through ordinary transfers. Article 28 allows Vietnamese individuals to acquire those rights and creates separate routes for people of Vietnamese origin living abroad and foreign-invested companies. It does not give ordinary foreign nationals a general right to buy residential land.
That rule remains current. Vietnam overhauled its land legislation with the 2024 Land Law, and several housing rules have been updated again since then, including amendments to Decree 95/2024 in 2026. None of those changes opened the normal residential land market to foreign individuals.
So a foreign buyer cannot simply find a 120 m² residential plot around Thu Dau Mot, Di An or Thuan An, pay the owner and receive the same registered land-use rights that a Vietnamese buyer could receive.
| What the foreign buyer wants to do | Possible today? | Who holds the right? | Main legal route |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buy an ordinary residential land plot personally | No | — | No general route for ordinary foreign individuals |
| Buy an eligible apartment | Yes | Foreign individual | Housing Law |
| Buy an eligible project villa or townhouse | Yes | Foreign individual owns qualifying housing | Housing Law |
| Use land through an investment company | Yes, in qualifying cases | Vietnamese foreign-invested company | Land Law and investment rules |
| Acquire broader residential land rights as overseas Vietnamese | Potentially yes | Eligible overseas Vietnamese buyer | Land Law |
Why can foreigners buy homes in Binh Duong but not ordinary land?
Foreigners can currently own certain homes in Binh Duong because Vietnamese law treats ownership of qualifying housing differently from a general right to buy land.
This is where a lot of the confusion starts. Vietnam does not operate a conventional freehold land system. Land belongs to the entire people, with the State acting as representative owner, while qualifying users hold land-use rights.
The Housing Law then creates a separate route for foreigners. A foreign individual who is permitted to enter Vietnam can buy qualifying commercial housing inside approved housing projects, as long as the property is outside restricted national-defense and security areas and the foreign-ownership quota remains available.
That can cover apartments, villas and terraced houses. An empty residential plot sold by a private owner does not fall into the same category.
A foreigner may therefore legally own a three-bedroom villa in an eligible development while being unable to buy an empty plot across the road. It's an awkward split, but legally they are different transactions.
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Did Vietnam's new Land Law make foreign land ownership easier?
Vietnam's newer Land Law expanded some foreign-related land rights, but ordinary foreign individuals still did not get a general right to buy residential land.
The biggest expansion concerned other categories. People of Vietnamese origin residing overseas gained much broader rights, including the ability in qualifying circumstances to receive residential land-use rights connected with housing. Foreign-invested economic organizations also have substantial rights when land is used for legitimate investment projects.
Those corporate rights are important in an industrial area such as Binh Duong. A foreign-invested business can, depending on the project and the way the land was obtained, lease land, receive certain land rights as capital, mortgage qualifying rights or transfer them during the legal land-use period.
An individual foreign resident looking for a private plot sits outside those routes.
So when someone says that foreign investors have gained more land rights under the new law, that can be correct. It just does not mean that an ordinary foreign individual can now buy a residential plot personally.
Can foreigners buy villas and townhouses in Binh Duong?
Yes. Foreigners can currently buy some villas and townhouses in the Binh Duong area when the homes are inside qualifying commercial housing projects.
The Housing Law explicitly includes independent houses such as villas and terraced houses in the foreign-ownership regime. The project must be open to foreign ownership, the location must pass national-defense and security requirements, and the local foreign quota cannot already be full.
That last condition is stricter for landed houses than many buyers expect. Foreign organizations and individuals can collectively own no more than 250 qualifying independent houses within an area whose population is treated as equivalent to one ward. Decree 95/2024 sets that population benchmark at 10,000 people.
If several eligible developments fall within the same relevant area, they share the 250-home ceiling.
Buying a developer-built townhouse can therefore be perfectly legal even though buying a comparable townhouse from a private owner in an ordinary neighborhood may not be available to the same foreign buyer.
| Property in the Binh Duong area | Can a normal foreigner buy it? | Main restriction | Typical result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Condo in an eligible project | Yes | Foreign quota | Registered foreign home ownership |
| Villa in an eligible housing project | Yes | Project eligibility and 250-house limit | Registered foreign home ownership |
| Townhouse in an eligible housing project | Yes | Same restrictions as villas | Registered foreign home ownership |
| Bare residential plot | No | Foreign individual cannot normally acquire the land-use right | No direct personal title |
| Ordinary private house outside an eligible project | Generally no through the standard foreign-buyer route | Housing eligibility | Requires a different legal situation |
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How much of a Binh Duong condo project can foreigners own?
Foreigners can currently own up to 30% of the residential apartments in a condominium building, with the calculation applied more precisely when a development has separate blocks or units.
Decree 95/2024 says that where a condominium has multiple blocks or units sharing a podium, the 30% ceiling is calculated for each relevant block or unit. A developer cannot simply concentrate far more foreign ownership into one part of a project because the overall development remains below 30%.
We can see how this has worked in practice from former Binh Duong provincial disclosures. Metro Tower Block A had 284 apartments and a published foreign ceiling of 85 units. Thirty percent of 284 is 85.2. Block B had 428 apartments and a foreign ceiling of 128, versus a mathematical 30% of 128.4.
Those old project-level records are useful because they show that the quota was being calculated and monitored at individual-building level rather than treated as a vague national guideline.
Today, buyers should still check the exact block. Hearing that a project “accepts foreigners” does not tell us whether a foreign slot remains available in the particular building.
| Example building | Total homes | 30% calculation | Maximum foreign units |
|---|---|---|---|
| Metro Tower Block A | 284 | 85.2 | 85 |
| Metro Tower Block B | 428 | 128.4 | 128 |
| 500-unit building | 500 | 150 | 150 |
| 800-unit building | 800 | 240 | 240 |
Does a foreigner own the land under a Binh Duong villa?
A foreign buyer of an eligible Binh Duong villa gets legally recognized housing rights tied to the project, but that does not give the buyer a general right to acquire residential land elsewhere.
The distinction becomes important when agents casually market a property as “house and land.” A foreigner buying an eligible project villa can receive a certificate recognizing the legally permitted ownership interest. That position is much stronger than holding a private side agreement with someone whose name appears on the land title.
But the buyer's legal rights still come from the foreign-housing framework. Ownership of one qualifying villa does not suddenly allow that person to buy an empty plot nearby.
We would look at the certificate and project approval before the marketing language. The useful questions are whether the home sits inside an eligible housing project, whether foreigners are allowed in that project, how much quota remains and how long the foreign ownership right will run.
“Villa with land” by itself tells us almost nothing about whether a foreigner can legally buy it.
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Is foreign property ownership in Binh Duong limited to 50 years?
For most ordinary foreign individuals, yes. Foreign ownership of eligible housing is currently limited to a maximum of 50 years from the date the ownership certificate is issued, with one possible extension of up to another 50 years.
The current Housing Law states this directly. The ownership period also has to appear on the certificate.
That makes the remaining legal term relevant when comparing properties. A newly certificated foreign-owned apartment can have almost the full initial period ahead, while the position may be different when buying a unit that has already spent years under foreign ownership.
Foreign buyers can sell or donate the home before the term expires to someone legally allowed to own it. Allowing the term simply to expire without dealing with the property is very different, because the Housing Law provides for the house to become public property if it has neither been sold nor donated beforehand.
There is an important marriage exception. A foreign individual married to a Vietnamese citizen and currently residing in Vietnam can own housing with the rights of a Vietnamese citizen rather than being confined to the normal foreigner regime.
Does marrying a Vietnamese citizen let a foreigner buy land in Binh Duong?
Marriage to a Vietnamese citizen gives a foreigner much stronger housing rights, but we would not treat it as an automatic personal right to buy any land plot in Binh Duong.
The Housing Law is unusually clear on the housing side. A foreign individual married to a Vietnamese citizen and residing in Vietnam may own housing and exercise the rights of a Vietnamese house owner. That removes one of the biggest restrictions faced by ordinary foreign buyers.
Land registration remains governed separately by the Land Law. That law defines who can receive land-use rights and does not simply create a blanket category saying every foreign spouse can personally acquire any residential plot.
A married couple buying a family home can have a completely legitimate structure, but buyers should know beforehand whose name will appear on the certificate, what rights each spouse holds and whether the land-use right can be registered in the exact form they expect.
The shortcut “marry a Vietnamese citizen and you can own land” is too loose to rely on for an actual purchase.
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Can a foreigner use a Vietnamese company to buy land in Binh Duong?
Yes, a properly structured foreign-invested Vietnamese company can currently obtain land rights for qualifying business or investment purposes, but the company holds those rights rather than the foreign shareholder personally.
The Land Law recognizes foreign-invested economic organizations as land users. Depending on the project, these companies can lease land from the State, receive qualifying land-use rights as capital and, in some cases, receive land allocation for housing development.
The way the land is paid for also changes what the company can do. A qualifying company using land under a one-off rental payment for the full term can have broader transfer, sublease, mortgage and capital-contribution rights than a company paying annual land rent.
That route is especially relevant around Binh Duong because the area remains one of southern Vietnam's major manufacturing and industrial centers. Foreign-owned factories, warehouses and development businesses need legal access to land, and the corporate land regime is built partly for that type of activity.
Creating a shell company simply to hold one personal house is a much weaker idea. Corporate land rights are tied to the company, its project and the legal basis on which it obtained the land.
| Structure | Can land access exist? | Registered holder | Best fit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Foreign individual buying a private plot | No general route | — | Not available |
| Foreign-invested Vietnamese company | Yes, where legally permitted | Company | Factory, business or investment project |
| Foreign buyer in eligible housing project | Yes to qualifying housing rights | Foreign homeowner | Personal residence or investment home |
| Vietnamese nominee holding a plot | Vietnamese person holds title | Nominee | High-risk workaround |
| Eligible overseas Vietnamese buyer | Much broader access | Overseas Vietnamese buyer | Residential ownership where statutory conditions are met |
Can a foreign company buy any Binh Duong plot it wants?
No. A foreign-invested company cannot simply choose any residential plot in Binh Duong and assume its corporate status makes the acquisition legal.
The company needs a valid legal route to the land. Depending on the case, that could involve State leasing, allocation for an approved project, subleasing in an industrial park, receiving permitted land rights as capital or another route recognized by the Land Law.
Project purpose matters as well. A manufacturer leasing industrial land, a developer receiving land for an approved housing scheme and a shell company trying to hold its shareholder's private home are three very different cases.
The corporate route can therefore provide far more control over land than an ordinary foreign individual has, particularly for real investment activity. But it comes with company law, investment approvals, taxes, accounting and project obligations.
For someone who simply wants a garden and a detached house, incorporating a company can easily create more complexity than it solves.
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Is leasing land a realistic alternative for foreigners in Binh Duong?
Yes, leasing is currently one of the most practical ways for foreign-invested businesses to control land in Binh Duong without needing personal ownership by a foreign shareholder.
This is common in industrial property. Foreign-invested companies can lease or sublease land in industrial parks and other qualifying zones. Depending on whether rent is paid annually or in one lump sum for the lease term, the company receives a different set of rights.
That structure fits Binh Duong particularly well. The area was built into a major industrial base through estates, factories, logistics facilities and large foreign manufacturing investments. For those businesses, ownership by an individual executive would serve little purpose. What matters is whether the operating company has secure, transferable and financeable land rights for long enough to support the project.
A private foreign resident can also enter contractual lease arrangements for residential use where legally permitted. But a long lease remains a lease. It does not turn into personal land-use ownership because the contract lasts 20, 30 or 50 years.
Is using a Vietnamese nominee to buy Binh Duong land safe?
No. Putting Binh Duong land in a Vietnamese friend's, employee's or partner's name leaves the foreigner without the same legal protection as the registered land user.
The problem appears immediately on the certificate. The Vietnamese nominee is the person recognized as holding the land-use rights. The foreigner may have supplied every dong of the purchase price, but funding the transaction does not make that person the registered land user.
Side agreements can create contractual claims, yet they cannot safely reproduce rights that the law does not grant directly to the foreign buyer. Problems become obvious if the nominee dies, divorces, accumulates debts, changes his or her mind, sells the property or becomes involved in litigation.
Some nominee structures try to reduce that risk with loan agreements, powers of attorney, mortgages or pre-signed transfer documents. The paperwork may give the foreigner more leverage, but the core title is still somewhere else. Not a great setup for the person putting in all the cash.
For a buyer deciding between an eligible foreign-owned apartment and an informally controlled land plot, we would normally choose the legally registrable asset. The apartment has restrictions, but at least the ownership right belongs to the person who paid for it.
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Can foreigners inherit land or property in Binh Duong?
Foreigners can inherit property interests in Binh Duong, but an ordinary foreign heir cannot assume that inherited land will simply be registered in his or her name.
The Land Law deals specifically with heirs who are not eligible to receive the relevant land-use rights. In that situation, the heir can generally obtain the economic value of the inheritance and take part in procedures to transfer or donate the rights, without receiving an unrestricted land certificate personally.
Housing can produce a different result when the inherited home falls inside the foreign-ownership regime and the heir qualifies to own it. The Housing Law still applies its project, location and quota restrictions.
Inheritance does not bypass the foreign-ownership rules. The law still checks whether the recipient is legally entitled to hold the asset.
This becomes especially important in mixed families where a Vietnamese owner intends to leave property to foreign children or a foreign spouse. Estate planning should be done around the actual legal category of each heir rather than assuming every asset can pass unchanged.
Are overseas Vietnamese allowed to buy more than ordinary foreigners in Binh Duong?
Yes. People of Vietnamese origin living abroad currently have much broader residential land rights than ordinary foreign nationals, and treating the two groups as equivalent gives the wrong answer.
The 2024 Land Law expanded this category significantly. Eligible people of Vietnamese origin residing overseas and permitted to enter Vietnam can buy or lease-purchase houses associated with residential land-use rights and can receive residential land-use rights in housing development projects.
They can also exercise much broader rights over qualifying residential land, including transfer, lease, donation, inheritance, mortgage and capital contribution where the statutory conditions are met.
This was one of the genuinely important changes in the newer Land Law. The ministry responsible for land administration highlighted the expansion when the legislation was introduced, describing overseas Vietnamese land rights as moving much closer to those enjoyed by Vietnamese citizens.
So before accepting a blanket statement that “foreign passport holders cannot buy land,” a Vietnamese-origin buyer should check whether he or she qualifies under the overseas Vietnamese provisions.
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Did Binh Duong joining Ho Chi Minh City change the rules for foreign buyers?
No. Binh Duong's incorporation into the expanded Ho Chi Minh City changed the administration of the area, while the basic foreign land and housing rules stayed the same.
The former province was merged with Ho Chi Minh City and Ba Ria–Vung Tau in 2025. Former Binh Duong areas such as Thu Dau Mot, Di An and Thuan An are therefore now administered within the enlarged city rather than a standalone Binh Duong province.
For a foreign buyer, that affects where current project information, ownership approvals and administrative records may be published. Older developments can still have documentation issued by former Binh Duong authorities, while newer administrative work falls under the reorganized Ho Chi Minh City system.
The current project-approval mechanism is still very active. Ho Chi Minh City authorities expanded the number of housing projects approved for foreign ownership to 88 in 2025, according to the Ministry of Construction. That figure should not be read as meaning all former Binh Duong projects are automatically included. Buyers still need to check the official eligibility of the exact project.
The merger changed the map and the agencies we check. It did not give ordinary foreign individuals a new right to buy bare land.
How can a foreign buyer check whether a Binh Duong property is actually legal to buy?
A foreign buyer should currently verify the exact project, building and unit before paying a deposit, because foreign eligibility is decided much more narrowly than many property advertisements suggest.
First, we need to know whether the property is qualifying commercial housing rather than an ordinary land plot or private house outside the foreign-ownership regime.
Then comes the project itself. Provincial-level authorities publish projects where foreign ownership is allowed after checking national-defense and security restrictions. This process is still being used today: the Ministry of Construction continues to publish new foreign-eligible housing projects submitted by provincial authorities.
Quota comes next. A legally eligible building can still be unavailable to a new foreign buyer once its foreign allocation is exhausted.
Finally, the contract and certificate need to match what the buyer thinks he or she is buying. The ownership term, buyer name, unit identity and project details should all be clear before large payments are made.
The old Binh Duong disclosures give a good illustration. Authorities previously published project-level and even block-level foreign ownership information for developments such as Metro Tower. These days, with Binh Duong incorporated into Ho Chi Minh City, the administrative source may change, but the need for that exact check has become more important rather than less.
| What to check | What we need to see | Red flag | What could go wrong |
|---|---|---|---|
| Property type | Eligible commercial housing | “Foreigners can own this land directly” | Buyer cannot register expected rights |
| Project approval | Project open to foreign ownership | Agent relies only on marketing material | Property may be restricted |
| Foreign quota | Space remains in exact building or area | “We will sort the quota later” | Certificate can become a problem |
| Seller's right to sell | Legally transferable property | Deposit demanded before documents | Contract risk |
| Ownership term | Clear remaining period | No explanation of certificate term | Buyer misprices the asset |
| Certificate details | Buyer and property correctly identified | Reliance on side agreements | Weaker legal protection |
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So can foreigners buy land in Binh Duong?
No. As of now, an ordinary foreign individual cannot directly buy a normal Binh Duong land plot and hold the land-use rights personally.
Foreigners do have several real property options. They can buy apartments in qualifying commercial projects, subject to the 30% foreign ownership ceiling. They can also buy eligible villas and townhouses, with foreign ownership of independent houses capped at 250 units within the relevant 10,000-person area.
Ordinary foreign housing ownership generally runs for up to 50 years from certification and can be extended once for up to another 50 years. Foreign spouses of Vietnamese citizens who reside in Vietnam have substantially stronger housing rights, while eligible overseas Vietnamese have a much broader route into residential land.
A genuine foreign-invested company can also obtain significant land rights for approved investment and business activities. That makes sense for factories, industrial property, development and other real projects. It does not give the shareholder personal ownership of the underlying land.
Binh Duong's merger into Ho Chi Minh City has not altered any of those fundamentals. What has changed is where buyers may need to look for project approvals and administrative information.
If a foreigner wants an empty residential plot registered personally in his or her own name, Binh Duong remains closed to that transaction. If the real objective is to own a home, invest in an approved development or control land through a genuine business, several legal routes are available, and they are far safer than trying to recreate land ownership through a nominee.
OUR METHODOLOGY
The question of whether foreigners can buy land in Binh Duong sounds simple, but several different legal situations are often compressed into the same yes-or-no answer. We broke the question into the parts that can actually change the legal result: the type of asset, the buyer's status, the acquisition route, the rights being registered and the restrictions attached to those rights.
We worked first from the current statutory framework and its implementing rules, then checked that framework against recent government, ministry and local administrative records. Primary legislation carries the most weight in the analysis; project approvals and foreign-ownership disclosures are used to show how the rules are being applied in practice.
The main legal anchors are the 2024 Land Law and the 2023 Housing Law. We also checked Law 43/2024/QH15, which amended the new land, housing and real-estate framework before it took effect, together with Decree 95/2024 and its 2026 amendments under Decree 54/2026.
For corporate land rights and the distinction between different land-rental structures, we checked Decree 102/2024 on implementation of the Land Law and Decree 103/2024 on land-use fees and land rent. The project and real-estate transaction framework was cross-checked against the 2023 Real Estate Business Law and Decree 96/2024.
We separately checked the administrative changes affecting Binh Duong rather than assuming older provincial records still described the present map. The main sources here are National Assembly Resolution 202/2025/QH15 on provincial-level reorganization and the Government's record of the new Ho Chi Minh City administrative structure.
To test how the foreign-housing rules work in practice, we used Ministry of Construction records on 17 Ho Chi Minh City housing projects approved for foreign ownership in July 2025 and the later addition of 23 projects, taking the reported total to 88. We also used the former Binh Duong Department of Construction's Metro Tower foreign-ownership disclosure and its broader housing and real-estate disclosure index to check project- and block-level implementation.
National-defense and security restrictions were cross-checked against the Government's policy and legal guidance on the interaction between land-use and foreign-housing screening rules. Across the analysis, we gave the most weight to sources that show the buyer's legally registrable position directly rather than to agent descriptions, broad market summaries or examples that do not establish what appears on the certificate.
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