Home owners apply for real estate registration in HCMC’s Binh Tan Province

Vietnam will begin to issue a single title for both land and house in December.

Vietnam does not allow formal land ownership but grants land use rights only.

The decree, which takes effect on December 10, says the new document will be issued no more than 50 days after an application is filed.

Since October 2006, owners of properties have been required to have two different titles, one recognizing their land use rights and the other for ownership of built property. The two-title system had created a lot of paperwork problems for local residents.

Land and house titles granted before December 10 will have the same legal status as the new single title.

Since 1994, a single ownership document was in use before the change introduced in 2006.

Reported by Quang Duan-An Nguyen