When is it allowed to negotiate land use rights for socio-economic development projects?

Reply:

According to Article 127 of the 2024 Land Law, regulations on land use to implement socio-economic development projects through agreements on receiving land use rights or having land use rights are as follows:

1. Land use for socio-economic development projects through agreements on land use rights is carried out in the following cases:

a) Project implementation cases that do not fall under the land recovery cases prescribed in Article 79 of this Law;

b) In the case of using land to implement commercial housing construction investment projects, only agreements on receiving residential land use rights are allowed;

c) In cases where state budget capital is not used and land recovery is subject to Article 79 of this Law, the investor chooses the option of negotiating the receipt of land use rights and does not propose land recovery.

2. Land agreed upon for receiving land use rights to implement socio-economic development projects has been allocated land, leased land, or recognized land use rights for land users by the State; in case the land area implemented according to the provisions of Clause 1 of this Article has land area managed by State agencies or organizations but cannot be separated into independent projects, the land area managed by State agencies or organizations shall be included in the total land area for project establishment and shall be recovered by the State to allocate or lease to investors to implement the project without having to go through the form of land use rights auction, without having to bid to select investors to implement projects using land.

3. Conditions for land use to implement socio-economic development projects through agreements on receiving land use rights as prescribed in Clause 1 of this Article include:

a) In accordance with the approved and announced district-level land use planning;

b) The investor must satisfy the conditions specified in Article 122 of this Law; in the case of using land to implement a commercial housing construction investment project, an agreement on receiving the right to use residential land is allowed;

c) There is a written approval from the Provincial People's Committee on the agreement on receiving land use rights to implement the project.

4. The State has policies to encourage agreements on receiving land use rights to implement socio-economic development projects in the cases specified in Clause 1 of this Article as follows:

a) Households and individuals using land that have not been granted a Certificate of land use rights, a Certificate of house ownership rights and land use rights, a Certificate of land use rights, house ownership rights and other assets attached to land, a Certificate of land use rights, ownership rights of assets attached to land but are eligible for a Certificate of land use rights, ownership rights of assets attached to land are allowed to transfer land use rights, lease, sublease land use rights, and contribute capital using land use rights to implement projects;

b) In case the investor has received land use rights to implement a project, but by the time the land use term for the land for which the rights have been received expires but the land procedures for project implementation have not yet been completed, the investor may continue to carry out procedures to implement the project without having to carry out extension procedures.

5. In case of agreement on receiving land use rights to continue production and business without changing the land use purpose, the provisions of this Law on transfer of land use rights shall apply.

6. A person who has the right to use land and proposes an investment project if it falls under the case specified in Article 79 of this Law but is in accordance with the land use planning and has a request to change the land use purpose and the competent state agency approves the investment policy and simultaneously approves the investor according to the provisions of the law on investment, shall be allowed to use the land to implement the investment project without the State recovering the land according to the provisions of this Law.

In case a person who has the right to use residential land or residential land and other land proposes a commercial housing investment project in accordance with the land use planning, has a request to change the land use purpose and is approved by a competent state agency in principle and at the same time approves the investor according to the provisions of the law on investment, he/she may use the land to implement the project.

7. The Government shall detail this Article.