Streamlining Administrative Procedures: A New Era for Property Ownership Documentation

According to Resolution 60, the Central Executive Committee agreed on the policy of organizing a two-tier local government system comprising the provincial level (provinces and centrally-run cities) and the communal level (communes, wards, and direct districts under provinces and cities).

The district-level administrative units will cease to exist from July 1st, following the enactment of the Resolution amending and supplementing several articles of the 2013 Constitution and the 2025 Law on Local Government Organization (amended).

Currently, people are accustomed to obtaining land-use right certificates (including first-time issuance and registration of changes) at the district level. Therefore, starting from July, when there will no longer be district-level governments, many people are concerned about obtaining new certificates or transferring land-use rights.

According to the draft Decree on decentralization and delineation of authority in the field of land, the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment proposes that the People’s Committee at the communal level be authorized to issue land-use right certificates for the first time.

The draft decree also shortens the procedure for handling procedures by transferring some authority from the district to the commune level, such as allocating residential land to individuals and implementing some land registration steps.

In addition, it is proposed that the People’s Committee at the commune level does not need to confirm additional conditions such as compliance with planning, dispute status, or stable land use period in some procedures for granting certificates – these are contents that the commune level has implemented and are recognized by law.

The Ministry also proposed clarifying the competence of the People’s Councils, People’s Committees, Chairpersons of People’s Committees, and specialized agencies at the commune level in land management – transferring some tasks originally performed by the district level. However, for specific types of land such as ponds, lakes, and marshes that span multiple communes, management remains under the People’s Committee at the provincial level (according to Article 188).

Regarding registration procedures for changes such as transfer, donation, inheritance, mortgage, and information changes, they will be handled by the provincial Land Registration Office and its branches.

When necessary, people can prepare a full set of documents and choose from several submission methods: online submission through the Public Service Portal, direct submission at the one-door division of the provincial or communal level, or submission via postal services.