Small changes in new laws effective August 1 will make obtaining house and land titles a shorter and simpler process, according to an official.

Basically, the procedure will follow the same steps as before but with simpler paperwork, Phung Van Nghe, head of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment’s Land Management General Department, told Thanh Nien Thursday.

Nghe said that by merging certain parts of the process, the whole procedure would now take 50 days at most, instead of 55 days as before.

According to the amendments of both laws, residents will be granted one title for both their land and house.

Guidance for the implementation of the amended laws will come later in August, Nghe said, adding that it wouldn’t affect much as there’s little new about the procedures.

While waiting for the guidance, he said officials can still receive and review applications from residents.

He said the instructions would be issued together with the new title forms, which legitimate land and house owners could then receive right away.

Organizations, foreigners or overseas Vietnamese investing in land and houses would still submit their applications at provincial land registration offices. Vietnamese individuals must apply for titles at their district Department of Natural Resources and Environment or their commune People’s Committees.

An Nguyen

Vietnam should have stuck with the old land title system

Vietnam is going back 15 years by reverting to a single house and land ownership title.

It was good policy made in 1994 that we are reverting to… Mainly because it was simple, but what is sad is how much drama was caused after it was changed in 2006 – until the officials realized the need to go back.

The new policy is included in changes made to laws concerning infrastructure construction that will take effect today.

It is expected to benefit many people, especially those in Ho Chi Minh City, the country’s largest urban center.

Since October 2006, people have been required to have two different ownership titles, known as so do (red book) and giay hong (pink paper), respectively for their land and the building on that land.

The 2006 change in the law to the “two papers for two rights” practice created a major burden to real estate transactions and triggered many conflicts between residents.

Before the 2006 change there had been a single title decree since 1994 that had allowed people to use one paper to indicate the ownership of both their land and house.

Dang Hung Vo, former Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment, said the policy under the single title decree “had established a consistent real estate registration system.”

That policy was maintained for 12 years, but during that time there had been a troublesome change of the form of the documents from “pink paper” to “red book” in 2004. Little things like name and format change in Vietnam can be a real drama.

So now we are going back to the original system that was decreed in 1994 and people are going to have a new paperwork headache to make the transition.

In fact, both residents and the governments will face troubles as there will be debates concerning different kinds of titles corresponding to different points of time.

When visiting state offices to confirm their land or house use titles, many residents do not hesitate to show that they are sick of these changes to the title system.

Also, the existence of different kinds of titles muddies the real estate market picture and hinders transactions. (MONRE)