Nghị định 30/2021/ND-CP

DECREE

AMENDING SOME ARTICLES OF THE GOVERNMENT'S DECREE NO. 99/2015/ND-CP DATED OCTOBER 20, 2015 ON GUIDELINES FOR THE LAW ON HOUSING

Pursuant to the Law on Government Organization dated June 19, 2015 and Law on Amendments to the Law on Government Organization and Law on Local Government Organization dated November 22, 2019;

Pursuant to the Law on Housing dated November 25, 2014;

Pursuant to the Construction Law dated June 17, 2020;

Pursuant to the Law on Investment dated June 17, 2020;

At the request of the Minister of Construction;

The Government hereby promulgates a Decree amending some Articles of the Government's Decree No. 99/2015/ND-CP dated October 20, 2015 on guidelines for the Law on Housing.

Article 1. Amendments to some Articles of the Government's Decree No. 99/2015/ND-CP dated October 20, 2015 on guidelines for the Law on Housing

1. Clause 2a is added after Clause 2 Article 4 as follows:

 “2a. Housing development programs and plans shall be amended as follows:

a) At least 06 months before the end of a housing development program according to regulations approved by the provincial People’s Council, the provincial People’s Committee must prepare and propose a new housing development program to the People's Council at the same level for approval as per the law on housing; after the housing development program has been approved, the provincial People's Committee shall approve the program and organize formulation and approval of local housing development plans as per the law on housing.

In case a housing development program must be amended due to change to the national housing development strategy or change to local socio - economic development planning or as appropriate to actual situation in the locality, the provincial People's Committee shall organize formulation of the amendment and propose it to the People's Council at the same level for approval;

b) The Department of Construction shall take charge or cooperate with the consultancy unit and district-level People's Committee in formulating and reporting amendment to the housing development program to the provincial People's Committee for consideration and comments before the amendment is proposed to the People's Council at the same level for consideration and approval. For central-affiliated cities, the People's Committee of central-affiliated city must obtain opinions from the Ministry of Construction on the amendment before proposing it to the People's Council at the same level for approval;

c) Amendments to housing development programs must include reason for and necessity of the amendment, assessment of results and issues of the content requiring amendment, solutions for amendment implementation, schedule, responsibilities of relevant regulatory bodies in implementing the amendment, the amendment’s connection with and impact on other contents of the program, resources for implementation and other relevant contents (if any); local governments may not promulgate resolutions to add lists of housing construction projects to programs; amendments shall abide by regulations in Points c, d, dd, e, g and h Clause 2 Article 3 of this Decree;

d) After the amendment is approved by the People's Council at the same level, the provincial People's Committee shall promulgate a decision approving amendment to housing development program;

dd) Based on the approved amendment to housing development program, the Department of Construction shall formulate an amendment to the housing development plan or cooperate with the consultancy unit in such formulation before proposing it to the provincial People's Committee for approval;

e) The amendment to housing development plan mentioned in Point dd herein may be carried out within the year after the provincial People's Committee has approved the amendment to the program or in the year following the year where the plan is adopted. In case where the housing development plan is amended in the year following the year where the plan is adopted, the provincial People's Committee must approve this amended plan before December 31 of the year preceding the year where the amended plan is adopted;

g) For any plan amendment concerning use of funding from state budget for housing development, the provincial People's Committee must obtain opinions on the funding use plan from the People's Council at the same level before approving the amendment.”

2. Clause 3 Article 4 is amended as follows:

 “3. After approving the housing development program and plan (including program and plan amendments), the provincial People's Committee shall publish the program and plan on its web portal and request the Department of Construction to publish them on the web portal of the Department of Construction; and, concurrently, send the program and plan to the Ministry of Construction for monitoring and management. The provincial People's Committee shall allocate funding from local government budget for formulation of the program and plan (including program and plan amendments) according to regulations of this Decree.

In case a housing development program or plan (including program and plan amendments) formulated and approved fails to comply with requirements of the Law on Housing and regulations of this Decree, the Ministry of Construction shall request the provincial People's Committee to amend the program or plan in accordance with regulations of law on housing in writing.

The Ministry of Construction shall stipulate criteria for housing demand determination in housing development programs and plans and provide guidelines for funding for formulation of local housing development programs and plans (including program and plan amendments).”

3. Article 9 is amended as follows:

 “Article 9. Obtaining appraising opinions on housing construction projects from housing authorities

1. Investment guidelines of housing construction projects shall be approved in accordance with regulations of investment law.

2. During the appraisal for approving investment guidelines of housing construction projects, the Ministry of Planning and Investment shall obtain appraising opinions from the Ministry of Construction on the contents mentioned in Clause 3 herein of projects whose investment guidelines require approval from the Prime Minister; and investment registration authorities shall obtain appraising opinions from Departments of Construction on the contents mentioned in Clause 3 herein of projects whose investment guidelines require approval from provincial People’s Committees or management boards of industrial parks, export-processing zones, hi-tech parks or economic zones.

3. Contents requiring appraisal from housing authorities include:

a) Name of project’s owner (for projects pending approval for both investment guidelines and owner and the owner is eligible for their position as a housing construction project owner according to this Decree); name of project per regulations of law on housing;

b) Investment objectives and form; location and land area allocated to housing construction of the project;

c) Compliance of the project with detailed planning (for cases with approved detailed planning) or zoning planning (for cases without approved detailed planning) or with general planning for cases where the detailed planning and zoning planning are not yet approved by the competent authority;

d) Suitability of the project’s proposals for the housing development program and plan approved by the competent authority;

dd) General suitability of the project’s housing structure (housing type, housing segment, type of business for each type of housing); commercial housing construction projects and metro area projects with housing are required to allocate land to social housing construction;

e) Uniformity of preliminary investment phasing plan, component project division (if any) and preliminary plan for investment in construction and management of project-related technical infrastructure and social infrastructure.”

4. Point a Clause 1 Article 12 is amended as follows:

 “a) The project’s name must be in Vietnamese; if the owner wishes to name their commercial housing construction project in a foreign language, the project’s full Vietnamese name shall be written before the name in the foreign language;”

5. Article 18 is amended as follows:

“Article 18. Cases of selection of owners of commercial housing construction projects and metro area projects with housing

Owners of commercial housing construction projects and metro area projects with housing (including projects where land use rights are transferred in the form of division of land into lots and sale of these divided lots to citizens for house construction) shall be selected as follows:

1. Winners of bidding or auction of the rights to use land used for housing construction projects who are eligible to be project owners according to regulations in Article 21 of the 2014 Law on Housing, Clause 2 Article 119 of the 2013 Land Law and law on real estate trading may become owners of commercial housing construction projects;

2. For holders of land use rights who meet any of the following conditions and are eligible to be project owners according to regulations in Article 21 of the 2014 Law on Housing, law on real estate trading and relevant law, the decision approving investment guidelines shall name these persons owners of commercial housing construction projects:

a) Have lawful residential land use rights;

b) Have lawful rights to use residential land and other types of land permitted by the competent authority to be repurposed into residential land;

c) Receive transfer of residential land use rights according to regulations of law on land for commercial housing construction.

3. In case a commercial housing construction project whose investment guidelines have been approved as per investment law has multiple investors, these investors may authorize one investor or establish an enterprise or cooperative eligible according to regulations in Clauses 1 and 2 herein to carry out the procedure for recognition of housing construction project owner provided for in Clause 4 of this Article. Authorization of housing construction project owner mentioned in this Clause shall be carried out via authorization agreements, which must specify the rights and responsibilities of each party.

4. Procedure for recognition of housing construction project owner mentioned in Clause 3 of this Article is as follows:

a) An application for owner recognition includes an application from the owner (which specifies the name and address of the owner, propositions, provisional project schedule); certified true copies or copies submitted together with their authentic copies for comparison of the following documents: written approval for the project’s investment guidelines issued by the competent authority, enterprise registration certificate or investment registration certificate, documentary proof of rights to use the project’s land, authorization agreement mentioned in Clause 3 herein; documentary proof of financial capacity for the project according to regulations of law on housing; documentary proof of escrow fund or bank guarantee for project performance escrow obligations according to regulations of law on investment;

b) If the project’s investment guidelines require approval from the Prime Minister, its owner, which is provided for in Clause 3 of this Article, shall submit one application prepared according to regulations in Point a of this Clause directly or by post to the Ministry of Construction for consideration and decision on project owner recognition; if the project’s investment guidelines require approval from the provincial People's Committee or management board of an industrial park, export-processing zone, hi-tech park or economic zone, the owner shall submit one application to the Department of Construction of the province where the project is located, which will consider and propose the application to the provincial People's Committee for project owner recognition;

c) Within 20 days starting from the date of receipt of the application prepared according to regulations in Point a of this Clause, the Ministry of Construction or provincial People's Committee shall consider and issue the decision on recognition of housing construction project owner intra vires. If the applicant is ineligible for the project owner position, within 05 days starting from the date of application receipt, the authority receiving the application shall inform the applicant of the reason in writing;

d) Contents of the decision on recognition of housing construction project owner include legal grounds for decision issuance, name of the recognized owner, effect of the decision and responsibilities of the owner for project performance as prescribed by law.

5. Investors recognized as housing construction project owners according to regulations in Clause 4 herein shall formulate, appraise, approve and perform their projects in compliance with this Decree, housing law, construction law and other relevant law. Division of profit between parties in the case provided for in Clause 3 herein shall be agreed upon in accordance with regulations in Clause 2 Article 19 herein; if all parties agree to divide the profit using housing products, the parties receiving housing products (excluding the project owner) may only sign house purchase or lease purchase agreements with clients after they are granted ownership certificates for the houses received.

6. Owners of metro area projects with housing shall be selected in compliance with regulations of this Article, regulations of law on construction, real estate trading and urban development and other relevant law.”

6. Article 36 is amended as follows:

 “Article 36. Transfer of funding for maintenance of shared areas of apartment buildings having more than one owner

 “1. Buyers, buyer/tenants and project owners must provide 2% of the funding for maintenance of shared area of apartment buildings as set out in Article 108 of the 2014 Law on Housing. This funding is tax-free. Before signing a purchase or lease purchase agreement concerning an apartment or another area in their apartment building, the project owner must open a checking account at a credit institution or branch of a foreign bank (hereinafter collectively referred to as “credit institution”) operating in the locality where the abovementioned apartment or area is located to receive maintenance funding from the buyer or buyer/tenant of the apartment or area as well as the 2% contribution from the project owner (hereinafter referred to as “funding account”). When opening such account, the project owner must specify that the account is intended to receive funding for apartment building maintenance. Before transferring maintenance funding to the management board of the apartment building as per the law, the project owner shall cooperate with the credit institution in depositing money from the funding account in a term deposit.

Owners of housing construction projects with apartment buildings must open a funding account according to regulations in this Clause to manage maintenance funding of apartment buildings of their projects; after opening the account, the owners shall notify the Departments of Construction of the provinces where their projects are located of the account holder, account number, credit institution where the account is opened and deposit term in writing.

2. When signing a purchase or lease purchase agreement concerning an apartment or another area in an apartment building, all parties must provide information on the funding account opened according to regulations in Clause 1 herein (account number, account holder, credit institution where account is opened and deposit term) in the agreement. Before receiving the apartment or area, the buyer or buyer/tenant must transfer their share of maintenance funding as per regulations into the funding account written in the agreement and send copy of confirmation of the transfer to the project owner. If the project owner hands over the apartment or area without collecting maintenance funding from the buyer or buyer/tenant, the investor shall pay this amount.

3. With regard to apartments and other areas which are not sold or yet to be sold or leased out under a lease purchase agreement when the apartment building is put into operation and required to make a 2% contribution to maintenance funding according to regulations of the 2014 Law on Housing, the project owner shall transfer this amount to the funding account opened as per regulations in Clause 1 of this Article. If the project owner fails to provide or transfer this amount as per the law, they shall be subject to administrative penalties or enforced transfer according to regulations in Article 37 of this Decree; in addition, as the case may be, the project owner may be liable to criminal prosecution as prescribed by law.

4. The project owner may not request the credit institution to allocate the funding deposited to the funding account opened according to regulations in Clause 1 of this Article for any other purpose before transferring the funding to the management board of the apartment building. Before such transfer, the project owner shall carry out maintenance of items and equipment of shared areas of the apartment building whose warranty has expired according to regulations and maintenance plans and procedures formulated as per construction law. Upon such transfer, the project owner may be reimbursed for this maintenance provided that detailed maintenance reports, aforesaid maintenance plans and procedures and invoices and documents proving the maintenance expenditure are available.

5. After the management board of the apartment building issues a written request for transfer of maintenance funding, the project owner and management board shall draw up a statement of maintenance funding figures; based on the figures agreed upon by both parties, the project owner shall send the statement and a written request to the credit institution managing the funding account for transfer of the funding to the account opened by the management board by wire transfer and transfer of reimbursement for any maintenance done previously by the project owner. Based on the request and figures, the credit institution shall transfer the maintenance funding to the account opened by the management board and reimbursement to the project owner (if any).

6. The management board of the apartment building shall open an account to receiving the funding for maintenance of shared areas of the building transferred by the project owner according to regulations on apartment building management and use promulgated by the Ministry of Construction. Costs arising from transfer of maintenance funding to the management board shall be covered by this funding.

7. After maintenance funding is transferred to the management board, the project owner shall close the funding account opened as per the law and send a written notification to the Department of Construction of the province where the apartment building is located for monitoring purpose.”

7. Article 37 is amended as follows:

“Article 37.  Procedure for enforced transfer of funding for maintenance of shared areas of apartment buildings

1. Procedure for enforced transfer of maintenance funding in case where the project owner fails to transfer funding collected according to regulations in Clause 1 Article 36 of this Decree is as follows:

a) If the project owner fails to transfer maintenance funding according to regulations in Article 36 herein, the management board of the apartment building shall request the People’s Committee of the province where the building is located, in writing, to request the project owner to transfer the funding as per regulations;

b) Within 10 days from the date on which the request from the management board is received, the People’s Committee of the province shall request the credit institution managing the funding account to provide information on the account number and deposit amount in writing. Within 07 days from the date on which the request from the People’s Committee of the province is received, the credit institution shall provide the requested information;

c) Based on information provided by the credit institution, the People's Committee of the province shall issue a decision on enforced collection and transfer of maintenance funding to the management board. This decision shall be sent to the Department of Construction, project owner, management board and credit institution managing the funding account to have the maintenance funding transferred;

d) Within 05 days from the date of receipt of the enforced collection decision from the People's Committee of the province, the credit institution managing the funding account shall transfer the funding to the account opened by the management board to have the funding managed and used as per housing law;

dd) After transferring the maintenance funding to the account of the management board, the credit institution shall send a written notification to the People's Committee of the province, Department of Construction, project owner and management board.

2. Procedure for enforced transfer of maintenance funding from the business account of the project owner in case where the project owner has no funding or insufficient funding for the transfer provided for in Clause 1 of this Article is as follows:

a) If the funding account has insufficient or no funding for the transfer, the provincial People's Committee shall send a written request to the credit institution for provision of information on the business account of the project owner and the amount available in this account. Within 07 days from the date of receipt of the request from the provincial People's Committee, the credit institution shall provide relevant information for the provincial People's Committee;

b) Based on information provided by the credit institution, the provincial People's Committee shall issue a decision on enforced collection and transfer of maintenance funding from the business account of the project owner to the management board. This decision shall be sent to the Department of Construction, project owner, management board and credit institution managing the funding account to have the maintenance funding transferred;

c) Within 05 days from the date of receipt of the enforced collection decision, the credit institution shall transfer the exact amount written in the decision from the business account of the project owner to the account of the management board. After transferring the money, the credit institution shall send a written notification to the provincial People's Committee, Department of Construction, project owner and management board.

3. Procedure for distrainment of property of the project owner in case where the project owner has no funding for the transfer provided for in Clause 2 of this Article is as follows:

a) In case the project owner has a business account but there is no money or insufficient money for deduction according to regulations in Clause 2 herein, the provincial People's Committee shall direct the Department of Construction to take charge and cooperate with the police and relevant authorities in inspecting and identifying housing and land of the project owner in the project with the apartment building or another project to seize and auction their housing and land to collect maintenance funding. If the project owner has no housing or land or the housing and/or land seized are/is inadequate for maintenance funding collection, other property of the project owner shall be identified and auctioned to collect and transfer sufficient maintenance funding to the management board.

The provincial People's Committee shall seize housing, land or other property having equal value to the maintenance funding to be transferred to the management board of the apartment building and costs of distrainment and auction of such property;

b) Based on housing, land or other property of the project owner identified according to regulations in Point a of this Clause, within 10 days, the Department of Construction must send a report to the provincial People's Committee to issue a decision on distrainment and auction of property of project owner for collection of maintenance funding of apartment building. This decision must specify the grounds for its issuance, name and headquarters of the project owner whose property is seized, maintenance funding amount to be collected, type and quantity of property seized and seizing location;

c) Procedures for distrainment, valuation and auction of property for maintenance funding collection shall conform to regulations of law on enforced execution of decisions on administrative penalties, distrainment and property auction and other relevant laws;

d) Transfer of maintenance funding collected from property auction must be recorded in writing with signatures from relevant parties. In case the auction revenue is more than enough to cover the maintenance funding and auction costs, within 30 days from the auction date, the Department of Construction shall cooperate with the auction organization in returning the excessive amount to the project owner.

4. During the process of distrainment for collection of maintenance funding for the management board of the apartment building, if the project owner commits any violation against criminal law, the provincial People's Committee shall request the competent authority to investigate and handle the violation as per the law.”

8. Point dd is added after Point d Clause 2 Article 57 is amended as follows:

 “dd) If a person who is currently using a state-managed house does not have any of the documents mentioned in Point a, b, c or d of this Clause but has a documentary proof of use of a house granted before January 19, 2007 (including permanent or temporary residence registration; housing declaration registration or annual land levy payment receipt), which is not involved in any dispute or lawsuit and confirmed to be lawfully occupied by this person by the housing authority in the rental application, this person may sign a lease agreement with the house operating unit according to regulations in Article 60 of this Decree.”

9. Point b Clause 1 Article 60 is amended as follows:

 "b) Any documentary proof of use of the house mentioned in either Point b, Point c, Point d or Point a Clause 2 Article 57 of this Decree.”

10. Point a Clause 1 Article 62 is amended as follows:

 “a) Houses in areas intended for construction of official residences or works of national importance as per the law;”

11. Point b Clause 2 Article 63 is amended as follows:

 “b) The rents under the lease agreement as well as housing operating costs (if any) have been paid sufficiently at the time of signing of the house purchase agreement.

If the house has been used before the lease agreement is signed or the lease agreement is concluded but the State has not collected the rents, the tenant shall pay rent arrears proportionate to actual house use time with the following rent rate: if the house is used before January 19, 2007, the rents shall be charged according to regulations in the Prime Minister’s Decision No. 118/TTg dated November 27, 1992; if the house is used after January 19, 2007, the rents shall be charged according to the Prime Minister's Decision No. 17/2008/QD-TTg dated January 28, 2008;”

12. Point dd is added after Point d Clause 3 Article 63 as follows:

 “dd) If management of an old house managed by a regulatory body or unit having housing is handed over to the housing authority but, at the time of receipt, it has been demolished and rebuilt, the housing authority shall receive and, depending on each case, sell it to the tenant at the rate mentioned in Article 65 or 70 of this Decree without carrying out the procedure for lease agreement signing.”

13. The following content is added to the end of Clause 1 Article 65 as follows:

 “For houses of classes I, II and II which are demolished and rebuilt by the tenants prior to the entry into force of this Decree, the remaining value of these houses shall be determined based on their current states at the time of allocation written in the decision or document on housing distribution or allocation or lease agreement or the time where each house is put to use determined according to the documents mentioned in Point dd Clause 2 Article 57 herein.”

14. Points e and g are added after Point dd Clause 2 Article 65 as follows:

 “e) For land already allocated by regulatory bodies and units for self-construction of housing, which is not funded by state budget, land levy shall be determined according to regulations of law on land;

g) For houses which are liquidated or sold by the State according to previous regulations on housing liquidation and selling policies and only the money from the sale, not the land levy, of which has been collected by the State, land levy shall be collected according to regulations in Article 65 of this Decree.”

15. Clause 3 Article 65 is amended as follows:

 “3. With regard to a single-story or multi-story house in which multiple households live and share housing and/or residential land, this shared area may be sold to all current households if they reach a consensus on division of the area among themselves in writing. House price and land levy for this shared area shall be determined according to regulations in Clauses 1 and 2 of this Article.

If such consensus is not reached, the housing authority shall not sell this area and keep managing it in accordance with this Decree and housing law.”

16. Point g is added after Point e Clause 2 Article 69 as follows:

 “g) If the buyer does not sign the purchase agreement by the announced deadline, the housing authority shall send a second written notification to the buyer, which specifies that the deadline for signing of the purchase agreement is 30 days from the date of receipt of the second notification. Within 10 days after the deadline stated in the second notification, if the buyer does not sign the purchase agreement, the housing authority shall propose that the provincial People's Committee issue a decision on annulment of the signed purchase decision and continue to manage and lease the house according to regulations of this Decree.”

17. The following content is added to the end of Point c Clause 1 Article 70 as follows:

“The remaining value of houses demolished and rebuilt shall be determined according to regulations in Clause 1 Article 65 herein.”

18. The following content is added to the end of Point b Clause 2 Article 71 as follows:

 “If the adjacent area is located within the premises of the old state-owned house, faces a street and is appropriate for business as determined the provincial People’s Committee, land levy shall be calculated based on the land price factor k mentioned in Point d Clause 2 Article 65 herein when the rights to use this area are transferred to the buyer.”

19. Clause 4 Article 71 is amended as follows:

“4. The housing authority shall take charge and cooperate with the district-level People’s Committee in managing the shared area that the house owner does not purchase or is not eligible for selling in accordance with regulations of this Decree and law on housing and land.”

20. Clause 5 Article 71 is amended as follows:

 “5. The provincial People’s Committee shall handle the cases provided for in Clauses 1, 2 and 3 of this Article according to the procedures in Article 71a of this Decree; and provide funding for measuring, drawing, preparing documents on and managing the shared areas provided for in Clause 4 of this Article.”

21. Article 71a is added after Article 71 as follows:

 “Article 71a. Applications and procedures for handling of sale of shared areas or transfer of rights to use adjacent areas or transfer of land use rights for houses to be built on empty land within the premises of old state-owned houses

1. An application includes:

a) Application, which is made using the form in the Appendix enclosed therewith;

b) Unexpired identity card or passport or police identity card or documentary proof of participation in the people’s military force according to regulations of the Ministry of National Defense of the applicant; and family registry or marriage certificate (for spouses);

c) Any of the following documentary proofs:

For the case provided for in Clause 1 Article 71 herein: certificate of ownership of the purchased house area or the agreement on purchase of this house area signed with the competent authority if this certificate is not available.

For the case provided for in Clause 2 Article 71 herein: certificate of ownership of the purchased house, or documentary proof of liquidation and sale of the house or agreement on purchase of the house if this certificate is not available, and lease agreement if the applicant is renting the house and wishes to buy it and deals with the adjacent area.

For the case provided for in Clause 3 Article 71 herein: confirmation from the commune-level People’s Committee that the house and land are not involved in any dispute or lawsuit and are in compliance with housing construction planning;

d) The applicant shall submit copies of the documentary proofs mentioned in this Clause together with their original copies for comparison directly or notarized or certified copies of these proofs by post to the receiving authority.

2. Handling procedures are as follows:

a) The applicant shall submit one application prepared according to regulations in Clause 1 of this Article directly or by post to the house operating unit or Department of Construction (to be decided by the provincial People's Committee);

b) The receiving authority shall receive and inspect the application and draw up a receipt document or written notification informing the applicant of the result announcement date. If the application lacks any component mentioned in Clause 1 herein, the receiving authority shall provide instructions for the applicant immediately (if the application is submitted directly) or send a request for supplementation per the law to the applicant within 03 days after the date of receipt of the application (if it is submitted by post).

If the receiving authority is the house operating unit, within 05 days after the date of receipt of a valid application, it shall inspect and add the application to an applicant list, which will be submitted together with the applications to the Department of Construction;

c) Within 30 days from the date of receipt of the list and applications from the housing operating unit, the Department of Construction shall convene the house pricing council to calculate the selling price and land levy as per regulations and send a report to the provincial People's Committee for consideration and decision;

d) Within 10 days from the date of receipt of the report from the Department of Construction, the provincial People’s Committee shall consider and issue a decision on sale of the shared area or transfer of rights to use the adjacent area or transfer of land use rights for house construction on empty land within the premises of an old house to the applicant. This decision shall be sent to the Department of Construction and house operating unit, which will notify the applicant of following procedures. If the applicant fails to follow the abovementioned notification, implement regulations in Point g Clause 2 Article 69 herein;

dd) After the applicant fulfills their financial obligations as per the law, the housing authority shall send their application to the competent authority to have the certificate issued to the applicant or amended according to regulations of law on land."

22. Clause 2 Article 75 is amended as follows:

 “2. The Ministry of National Defense and the Ministry of Public Security shall specify the areas having national defense and security requirements in each province and send a written notification to the People’s Committee of the province to provide the basis for directing the Department of Construction to compile a list of commercial housing construction projects in the province whose houses may be owned by foreign entities.”

23. Points a and b Clause 1 Article 76 are amended as follows:

 “a) A list of housing construction projects in the province which are located inside the areas in which foreign entities are permitted to own houses;

b) The quantity of houses (including apartments and detached houses) of each housing construction project that foreign entities may own according to Point a of this Clause; the quantity of apartments of each apartment building and the quantity of detached houses of each project that foreign entities may own;”

24. Clause 2a is added after Clause 2 Article 77 as follows:

 “2a. When applying for extension of time limit for housing ownership, foreign entities may submit copies together with original copies for comparison or notarized or certified copies of the documents mentioned in Clauses 1 and 2 herein.”

Article 2. Amendments to and annulment of some regulations on procedures for investment in housing construction and real estate trading

1. Article 10, Article 11, Clause 4 Article 13, regulations related to investment following the build - transfer (BT) method in Article 14, Clause 2 Article 26, Point c Clause 2, Point c and Point dd Clause 4 Article 27 and Clause 3 Article 29 of the Government’s Decree No. 99/2015/ND-CP dated October 20, 2015 on guidelines for the Law on Housing are annulled.

2. For transfer of the whole or a part of real estate projects provided for in Clause 2 Article 12 and Clause 1 Article 13 of the Government’s Decree No. 76/2015/ND-CP dated September 10, 2015 on guidelines for the Law on Real Estate Trading, investors may include copies together with original copies for comparison or notarized or certified copies of required documents in applications for this type of transfer.

3. The phrase “nộp 02 bộ hồ sơ” (“submit 02 applications”) in Clause 1 Article 54, Point a Clause 2 and Points a and b Clause 3 Article 60 of the Government’s Decree No. 99/2015/ND-CP dated October 20, 2015 on guidelines for the Law on Housing is replaced with “nộp 01 bộ hồ sơ” (“submit 01 application”).

Article 3. Transitional provisions

1. For housing development programs and plans (including amended housing development programs and plans) approved  prior to the entry into force of this Decree, the provincial People's Committee shall send these programs and plans to the Ministry of Construction for monitoring and management as per the law.

2. For housing construction investment projects performed following the build-transfer (BT) method, the transition process shall take place in accordance with regulations of law on public-private partnership investment.

3. Where competent authorities issue documents on selection of housing construction project owners prior to the entry into force of this Decree, it is not required to reselect the owners in compliance with regulations of this Decree and law on investment; where competent authorities have received applications for selection of housing construction project owner prior to the entry into force of this Decree but yet to issue a document on owner selection, the owners shall be selected in accordance with regulations of this Decree and law on investment.

4. In case a housing construction project owner has not collected sufficient funding for maintenance of the shared area of their apartment building as per the law by the entry into force of this Decree, the owner shall open a funding account according to regulations of this Decree to deposit the collected amount and notify the buyers and tenants that they are required to deposit their shares to this account; the owner responsible for maintenance funding provision shall close this account and transfer this funding in full to the management board of their apartment building as prescribed by law.

5. For application for handling of an area adjacent to a state-owned house facing a street and appropriate for business, if the competent authority has yet to issue a decision on pricing of this area by the entry into force of this Decree, land levy shall be calculated based on the factor k according to regulations of this Decree; if the competent authority issues a pricing decision before the entry into force of this Decree, land levy shall be calculated as per this decision.

6. For any application submitted according to regulations in Clause 21 Article 1 of this Decree, if the competent authority has yet to issue a handling decision by the entry into force of this Decree, the application shall be processed as prescribed by regulations of this Decree; if the competent authority issues a handling decision before the entry into force of this Decree, this decision shall apply.

Article 4. Implementation clause

1. This Decree takes effect from the date on which it is signed.

2. Where Vietnamese citizens are issued with personal identification numbers and the national population database and databases on investment registration and enterprise registration are connected and put into operation, personal identification numbers may be used in place of identity documents (copies of identity cards, passports and other identity documents) for procedures concerning housing and real estate trading according to regulations of law on housing and real estate trading.

3. Ministers, heads of ministerial-level agencies, heads of Governmental agencies, and Chairpersons of People’s Committees of provinces and central-affiliated cities shall implement this Decree.