Chairing the “Orientations for Improving the Legal Framework on Land and Amending the Land Law to Unlock Resources for Socio-Economic Development in a New Era” seminar, held in early July, National Assembly Deputy Chairman Nguyen Hong Dien emphasized strengthening the effectiveness and efficiency of State land management.
Transforming land into a strategic resource, competitive advantage, and key driver of national development, he continued, requires a fresh and innovative approach to reforming the legal framework on land, including amendments to the Land Law and related legislation.
He also called for further clarifying the State’s role as the representative of the people; the collective owners of land. The objective, he said, is to unlock land resources without weakening State oversight, promote development while preventing losses, waste, and rising inequality, and safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of citizens.
Balancing interests
Associate Professor Nguyen Quang Tuyen, Vice Chairman of the Council of Hanoi Law University, told the seminar that implementation of the Land Law 2024 has exposed new bottlenecks that are hindering efforts to unlock land resources for development. Provisions governing land recovery, compensation, and site clearance require further review, with revisions aimed at balancing the interests of the State, affected communities, businesses, investors, and land users.
He argued that compensation should go beyond covering lost land and assets to help affected people restore their livelihoods and improve their standard of living. For residential land, compensation should be sufficient for households to purchase or rent a new home if the State cannot provide resettlement housing. He also called for compensation to address the broader impacts of land recovery on cultural heritage, the environment, and local ecosystems, while allowing communities to share in the benefits of development projects.
Land recovery should serve the national and public interest while supporting sustainable development, he added, while administrative procedures should be simplified to give investors faster and more affordable access to land.
To strengthen the Land Law 2024, he proposed allowing farmers whose land is acquired to share in the economic gains of development projects, in addition to receiving compensation and resettlement support. He also urged businesses to prioritize hiring people from affected households and called for incentives to encourage the practice.
For transport and urban infrastructure projects, he proposed allowing the State to acquire adjacent land, not just the land needed for construction, to create a clean land bank. Frontage land could then be auctioned after infrastructure is completed, with the proceeds used to finance compensation and resettlement. He believes the approach would improve compensation, create a sustainable funding source, and reduce delays caused by site clearance.
He also recommended incorporating provisions on land pricing, compensation, and land recovery from National Assembly Resolution No. 254/2025/QH15 into the Land Law 2024, to improve legal consistency. In addition, he called for compensation based on replacement value that covers both material and non-material losses, including resettlement costs, lost livelihood opportunities, and other indirect impacts. He also proposed more flexible rules for people lacking complete land or property documentation, particularly in remote and disadvantaged areas.
Finally, he recommended assigning disputes over land prices, compensation, and resettlement either to the People’s Courts or, in commercial land recovery cases, to commercial arbitration to ensure an independent and impartial resolution process.
Beyond land valuation
Associate Professor Hoang Van Cuong, Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Economic Association and former Vice Rector of the National Economics University, said most policies governing land allocation, leasing, recovery, compensation, land use rights auctions, taxation, land use fees, and real estate development are built on land valuation.
Land prices underpin the entire land finance system and are a key tool for the State to allocate resources, regulate economic interests, and manage land in a market economy. As such, the quality of the land valuation system affects not only State budget revenue but also land use efficiency, market transparency, and the balance of interests between the State, land users, and investors.
However, he noted that core concepts, including land price, the value of land use rights, land valuation, land price schedules, and specific land prices, remain inconsistently understood in both academic research and policymaking. This lack of clarity has made land-related economic policies more difficult to implement.
The Associate Professor emphasized that land valuation is not the ultimate goal of land policy. Rather, it should serve as a tool to allocate land resources efficiently, ensure fair financial obligations, and appropriately capture the increase in land value created by the State and society.
He therefore called for further refining the concepts and principles governing land valuation in the Land Law 2024. Specifically, he proposed defining land price as the monetary expression of the value of land use rights, aligning valuation principles with the market value of those rights rather than the broader concept of “market principles,” and defining land valuation as the process of estimating the value of land use rights instead of simply determining a land price.
He also recommended revising the definition of land use rights value to reflect both the current and expected future economic value of land, improving valuation methods and pricing criteria, eliminating the coefficient-based valuation method, requiring annual publication of land price schedules, and incorporating a broader range of factors affecting land values rather than relying primarily on location. In addition, he proposed introducing a tax mechanism to capture increases in land value.
Unlocking land access
Dr. Nguyen Van Khoi, Chairman of the Vietnam Real Estate Association, said land is a unique means of production, a strategic national resource, and a critical input for most sectors of the economy, underpinning urbanization, industrialization, infrastructure, housing, logistics, tourism, modern agriculture, and the digital economy.
With Vietnam targeting double-digit GDP growth from 2026, he said improving access to land will be critical to mobilizing private investment, attracting domestic and foreign capital, and supporting the development of infrastructure, industry, services, and urban areas.
While implementation of the Land Law 2024 and its supporting regulations has resolved many challenges over the past two years, Dr. Khoi said the biggest bottleneck for investors remains access to land.
He attributed this to a land use planning system that remains overly administrative and inflexible. Planning still focuses largely on land use quotas rather than economic value, efficiency, and development potential, while lengthy revision cycles make it difficult to respond to new industries, technologies, and investment opportunities.
Land use planning should not create more administrative procedures, he added, but instead guide investment, unlock development opportunities, and ensure efficient use of land resources. As Vietnam enters a new phase of rapid, sustainable growth, regulations governing land use planning, land allocation and leasing, land use rights auctions, investor selection, and land transfers require further reform.
He proposed retaining the land use planning framework while making it more flexible by allowing expedited adjustments for strategic, high-tech, innovation-driven, and growth projects, while improving coordination with provincial, urban, construction, transport, and sectoral plans. He also called for setting aside sufficient land for social and rental housing, industrial parks, logistics centers, digital infrastructure, renewable energy, and emerging industries.
Most importantly, Dr. Khoi urged a shift from managing land allocation to governing land access. Under this approach, all eligible land users would have transparent, equitable, predictable, and affordable access to land resources, shortening project preparation, reducing compliance costs, and improving transparency.
He also proposed streamlining land allocation and leasing, land use rights auctions, investor selection, and land transfers by adopting a one-project, one-selection mechanism, simplifying administrative procedures, expanding decentralization with clear accountability, and strengthening auction and bidding rules to curb speculation and ensure qualified investors are selected.
In addition, he recommended encouraging long-term land leases for rental housing, industrial parks, logistics, and other land-intensive sectors, establishing a National Land Bank and Land Development Fund to build ready-to-use land reserves, developing financing mechanisms for Transit-Oriented Development, and completing a unified digital land database.
“Reforming land use planning and the mechanisms governing land allocation, leasing, auctions, bidding, and land use rights transfers is not only about removing obstacles for businesses,” he told the seminar. “More importantly, it is about creating a transparent, equitable, and efficient land access system. That is the prerequisite for unlocking land resources, improving land use efficiency, fostering a safe and sustainable real estate market, and supporting Vietnam’s goal of rapid and sustainable growth in a new era of development.”
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