Foreign homeowners and landlords in Vietnam can be fined up to VND 50 million (about $1,920) for breaching housing ownership and rental notification rules under Decree 339/2026/ND-CP, which the Government issued on 26 August 2026 and which took effect the same day. These penalties sit alongside separate, actively enforced temporary residence registration rules that can also fine both tenants and landlords under Decree 282/2025/ND-CP.
The new housing penalties: Decree 339/2026
Decree 339 sets administrative penalties across construction, technical infrastructure, housing management and development, and real estate business. For foreign individuals who own housing, it targets four breach types.
- Failing to notify authorities in writing before renting out a residential property, or failing to notify when the lease ends: VND 20 to 30 million (about $767 to $1,150).
- Owning housing while ineligible or not meeting ownership conditions: VND 30 to 50 million (about $1,150 to $1,920).
- Paying for a purchase or lease purchase without going through a Vietnamese credit institution: VND 30 to 50 million.
- Submitting an application to extend the housing ownership period after the deadline: VND 30 to 50 million.
If you are found owning while ineligible, the remedial measure is to return the property and receive a refund of amounts paid. For ongoing rentals, authorities will require you to submit the missing written notifications. Foreign organizations face higher penalties, VND 60 to 100 million (about $2,300 to $3,840), for similar breaches, including housing people who do not work for the organization or bypassing bank payments.
Decree 339 also carries much larger fines for real estate businesses that take customer payments outside bank channels (VND 240 to 300 million) and that fail to disclose project information properly (VND 300 to 400 million), which points to where the state's attention is: payment transparency and consumer protection in property transactions.
The ownership rules these fines enforce
Two of the four fines only make sense against the underlying limits in the Law on Housing 2023 (Law No. 27/2023/QH15, in force since 1 January 2025), which the decree is enforcing.
- Term: a foreign individual owns for 50 years, with one extension of up to 50 further years, so 100 years is the ceiling. The fourth fine above is for filing that extension late, which is why the date matters rather than the paperwork.
- Quota: foreigners may hold no more than 30% of the apartments in a single building, and no more than 10% of the standalone houses in a project. Buying past a building's quota is one of the ways an owner ends up ineligible, and it is not always visible to the buyer at signing.
Foreigners also cannot own housing in areas restricted for national defence and security, and eligibility depends on the project being approved for foreign ownership in the first place.
Do not mix this up with temporary residence registration
Housing ownership fines are separate from temporary residence registration, which is enforced at ward police level under Decree 282/2025/ND-CP (effective 15 December 2025). The two are commonly confused because both can reach the same landlord for the same tenancy.
- Who declares: for a private rental the landlord or homeowner, as the accommodation provider, is responsible for declaring a foreign tenant's temporary residence. The penalties sit in Article 21 of Decree 282/2025, which is the foreigner specific provision, not the general residence notification rules in Article 10.
- Deadline: promptly on receiving the guest. The declaration is made through VNeID or the Ministry of Public Security's residence declaration portal, and provincial police guidance is explicit that it must be filed when the foreigner is taken in, not later in the tenancy.
- Landlord fines scale with headcount: VND 3 to 5 million for 1 to 3 undeclared foreigners (Article 21.3.e), VND 10 to 15 million for 4 to 8 (Article 21.5.c), and VND 15 to 20 million for 9 or more (Article 21.6.dd).
- The foreign tenant is exposed too, and by more than people expect: failing to present a passport or residence documents to the accommodation so the declaration can be made falls in the same VND 3 to 5 million band, not the VND 500,000 to 1,000,000 that applies to general residence notification breaches.
Compliance checklist
Before you rent out, as a foreign owner
- Confirm you are eligible to own under the Law on Housing 2023: the project must be approved for foreign ownership, and the building must be under its 30% quota.
- Prepare a written notification to authorities of your intention to rent out the unit, before signing or occupancy.
- Ensure all purchase and lease purchase payments flow through a Vietnamese bank, and keep the records.
- Track your ownership period and file any extension before the deadline, not after it.
At move-in, as landlord or tenant
- The landlord submits the temporary residence declaration through VNeID or at the ward police within the required window.
- Keep copies of the passport, visa or residence card pages and the rental contract ready for inspection.
- When the lease ends, the foreign owner submits the termination notification that Decree 339 requires.
Common pitfalls in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi
- Assuming a private lease contract removes the need for a residence declaration. It does not.
- Paying a deposit or purchase instalment in cash, or by overseas transfer straight to the seller. Decree 339 requires bank channel payments for these transactions.
- Treating hotel style short stays as exempt when the property is a private residential unit in your name. Declaration duties still apply depending on use and management model.
If you are already non-compliant
- Foreign owners: prepare the missing written notifications for rental start and termination, gather your bank payment records, and take advice if your eligibility is unclear.
- Landlords and tenants: file the temporary residence declaration now and keep proof of submission in case of a spot check.
- Expect repeated or large scale breaches, meaning multiple units or many unregistered tenants, to draw the higher bands and closer scrutiny.
Decree 339 is already in force, so there is no grace period to plan around. If you own or rent out housing in Vietnam as a foreign individual, the two things worth checking this week are whether your rental notifications were ever filed, and whether your purchase payments went through a Vietnamese bank.
