On August 15, 2025, the Government promulgated Decree No. 226/2025/ND-CP amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Decrees detailing the implementation of the Land Law (“Decree 226”). In general, Decree 226 amends and supplements the provisions in the direction of interpreting and clarifying certain issues that have not been clearly stipulated in the Land Law 2024 and the previous guiding decrees.
1. Amendment and supplementation to Decree No. 71/2024/ND-CP (“Decree 71”): determination of land prices according to the common average of collected land prices
a) Decree 226 supplements the provision that, in cases where a project has a land allocation decision or land lease decision that meets the conditions for calculating the development revenue and development costs of the land parcel or land area, while at the same time having multiple land allocation or land lease decisions[1], the determination of the estimated development revenue and estimated development costs shall be carried out for the entire project in accordance with the detailed planning or the master site planning approved or accepted by the competent authority in accordance with the laws on urban and rural planning.
b) Decree 226 provides that cases determined as transfers on the market shall not include the case where the investor and the customer enter into contracts for the purchase and sale of real estate to be formed in the future. This provision helps ensure that the determination of land prices is closest to the market price at the time of determination.
c) Regarding land prices, Decree 226 supplements the provision on determining the common average land price as the arithmetic mean of the collected land prices. Decree 226 changes the order of priority for selecting information of comparable land parcels, land lots in the direction that the first priority is the closest distance to the land parcel, land lot subject to valuation and is not limited by the administrative boundaries of commune-level administrative units within the provincial administrative area; at the same time, the adjustment of the price of comparable land parcels, land lots may be carried out according to absolute value (instead of only by percentage as previously).
d) With respect to the determination of non-agricultural land prices, Decree 226 supplements the factors affecting the determination of non-agricultural land prices including: brand development costs, business promotion costs, customer support, gifts, promotions included by the investor in the selling price, and other reasonable costs affecting land prices.
e) Regarding the process of land price determination: the competence is adjusted to belong to the Commune-level People’s Committee in order to be consistent with the two-level local government organization; at the same time, Decree 226 supplements the requirement that the explanatory report on the land price plan and the land price decision must be publicly disclosed to ensure transparency.
2. Amendment and supplementation to Decree No. 88/2024/ND-CP (“Decree 88”): priority in arranging resettlement locations in the area nearest to the area where land is recovered
a) Decree 226 provides guidance on transitional provisions regarding cases where investors are allowed to continue using land to implement investment projects under the principle that: if the selection of investors has complied with legal regulations[2] and such investment project falls under the case where the State recovers the land but the land recovery has not yet been completed, and the investor or project owner has advanced compensation, support, resettlement funds or has already paid compensation, support, resettlement for part of the project’s land area, they shall be allowed to continue the process of land recovery, compensation, support, resettlement in order to allocate land or lease land.
b) Decree 226 also supplements provisions guiding the determination of the number of household members entitled to support upon land recovery as follows: the number of household members entitled to support are those who share land use rights at the time of approval of the compensation, support, and resettlement plan, and household members arising after the time of allocation of agricultural land to that household (if any); the determination of the number of household members sharing land use rights shall be agreed upon by the household members themselves and they shall be responsible before the law.
c) Decree 226 provides guidance under the Land Law on the case where households, individuals, when the State recovers land attached to residential houses, must relocate but are not eligible for compensation for residential land, if they have no other residence within the commune-level administrative area where the recovered land is located, then the State shall allocate residential land with land use levy, or sell, lease, or lease-purchase housing. In addition, Decree 226 also provides that the arrangement of resettlement locations shall be selected according to the following order of priority:
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Within the commune-level administrative area where the land is recovered;
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Within another commune-level administrative area with equivalent conditions in case there is no land available for resettlement arrangement in the commune-level administrative area where the land is recovered;
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Priority shall be given to selecting land lots with favorable locations for forming resettlement areas.
d) In cases where land recovery decisions have been issued for project implementation but there are changes in planning, boundaries, or alignments, Decree 226 provides that during construction, if a land recovery decision has been issued in accordance with the Land Law for a land parcel or part of a land parcel but there are changes in planning, boundaries, or alignments so that only part of the recovered land is used for construction of the project, work, and safety protection corridors of the project, work, then the Chairman of the Commune-level People’s Committee shall decide to adjust the land recovery decision and the decision approving the compensation, support, and resettlement plan in conformity with the actual situation at the request of the investor or the land user.
3. Amendment and supplementation to Decree No. 101/2024/ND-CP (“Decree 101”): poor households and near-poor households shall continue to be entitled to record land use levy debts when receiving gifts of land use rights
On the basis of inheriting the provisions of Decree 101, Decree 226 supplements the provision that the time limit for land use levy debts of the above subjects shall last until the land user exercises the rights to conversion, transfer, donation of land use rights, mortgage, or capital contribution by land use rights, and must pay in full the remaining land use levy debt before exercising such rights; in case of donation or inheritance of land use rights, the recipient of the donation who is a poor household, near-poor household, and the heir shall continue to be entitled to record such debts.
4. Amendment and supplementation to Decree No. 102/2024/ND-CP (“Decree 102”): clarification on determination of cases of failure to put land into use according to the schedule of the investment project
Decree 226 also provides more clarity on land use extension not exceeding 24 months as follows: in case an investment project is 24 months behind schedule in land use compared with the schedule stated in the investment project from the time of receiving land handover on site, then the land use extension not exceeding 24 months shall apply to the entire land area of the project (Decree 102 did not stipulate that such extension applies to the entire land area of the project).
In addition, Decree 226 supplements provisions on determination of failure to put land into use, specifically as follows:
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In case more than 12 months have elapsed since the date of land handover on site and the project investor has not carried out construction of the items, works according to the approved project, it shall be determined as a case of failure to put land into use for 12 consecutive months.
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In case more than 24 months have elapsed since the expiry of the investment schedule stated in the investment project (or the adjusted investment project in accordance with the law on investment) and the project investor has not completed construction of all items, works according to the approved project, it shall be determined as a case of delay in land use for 24 months compared with the schedule stated in the investment project.
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Upon the expiry of the land use extension period stated in the extension decision and the project investor has not completed construction of all items, works according to the approved project, it shall be determined as a case of expiry of the extension period while the project investor has still not put the land into use.
Decree 226 takes effect from August 15, 2025.
[1] a land allocation decision only for the land area not subject to land use levy, or a land lease decision only for the land area leased with annual rental payment, or a land allocation or land lease decision including a land area not subject to land use levy, a land area leased with annual rental payment, or the remaining land area of the project not yet allocated which falls under the case of land allocation without land use levy, not yet leased which falls under the case of annual rental payment.
[2] at the time of the issuance of the written approval of the investment policy or investor selection by the competent authority, or the investor, project owner has been selected in accordance with the provisions of the Law on Investment, the Law on Housing, and the Law on Bidding.
Comment: