Is Agricultural Land Still Tradeable After Expiry?

19 March, 2025

According to Point a, Clause 1, Article 172 of the 2024 Land Law: “The duration of land allocation and recognition of land use rights for agriculture for individuals directly engaged in agricultural production using land for annual crops, aquaculture, salt production, perennial crops, and production forests within the limits prescribed in Article 176 of this Law is 50 years.”

Upon expiration of the land use term, the user shall continue to use the land for the term prescribed in this Clause without having to undergo term extension procedures.”

With this regulation, citizens wonder whether the land user is entitled to exercise rights such as transfer, donation, or inheritance upon expiration of the land use term.

In response to this query, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment stated that Clause 1, Article 23 of the 2024 Land Law stipulates the rights to convert, transfer, lease, sublease, inherit, and donate land use rights, as well as to mortgage and contribute capital with such rights.

It clearly states: Land users shall have the rights to convert, transfer, lease, sublease, inherit, and donate land use rights, as well as to mortgage and contribute capital with land use rights in accordance with the provisions of this Law and other relevant laws.

Illustration: Hong Khanh

Clause 1, Article 45 of the 2024 Land Law stipulates the conditions for exercising the rights to convert, transfer, lease, sublease, inherit, and donate land use rights, as well as to mortgage, contribute capital with land use rights, and to receive transferred and donated land use rights.

Accordingly, land users must fulfill certain conditions to exercise their rights to convert, transfer, lease, sublease, inherit, and donate land use rights, as well as to mortgage and contribute capital with such rights.

Specifically, besides possessing a Certificate of Land Use Rights/ or a Certificate of Ownership of Houses and Land Use Rights/ or a Certificate of Ownership of Houses and Land Use Rights and other assets attached to the land/ or a Certificate of Land Use Rights, ownership of assets attached to the land (red book), except in cases of inheritance of land use rights, conversion of agricultural land in the process of field consolidation and land swap, donation of land use rights to the State, the community, and cases prescribed in Clause 7, Article 124, and Point a, Clause 4, Article 127 of this Law.

The land must be free from disputes, or any disputes must have been resolved by competent state agencies, court judgments, arbitral decisions, or arbitral awards that have taken legal effect.

Land use rights must not be subject to seizure or other measures to ensure the enforcement of civil judgments in accordance with the law on civil judgment enforcement; nor must they be subject to provisional emergency measures as prescribed by law, and the land must still be within the term of use.

Thus, citizens directly engaged in agricultural production using land for annual crops, aquaculture, salt production, perennial crops, and production forests within the prescribed limits shall, upon expiration of the land use term, continue to use the land without having to undergo term extension procedures.

However, if one wishes to exercise the aforementioned rights, the land must still be within the term of use (as stipulated in Point d, Clause 1, Article 45 of the 2024 Land Law), according to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.

The confirmation of continued agricultural land use shall be executed in accordance with Article 65 of Decree No. 102 of 2024, issued by the Government, detailing the implementation of several articles of the Land Law.

Article 65. Procedure and process for confirming the continued use of agricultural land by individuals upon expiration of the land use term

Individuals using agricultural land as defined in Point a, Clause 1, Article 172, and Clause 1, Article 174 of the Land Law, who wish to have their land use term reconfirmed on their previously issued Certificates, shall follow the procedure and process as follows:

1. The land user shall submit a written request for land use term reconfirmation using Form No. 09, attached to this Decree, along with the previously issued Certificate to the agency receiving applications and returning results as specified in Clause 1, Article 12 of this Decree.

In case the land user submits the application to the People’s Committee of the commune where the land is located, the People’s Committee shall forward the application to the Land Registration Office or its branch.

2. The Land Registration Office or its branch shall examine the application, reconfirm the land use term according to the term prescribed in Clause 1, Article 172 of the Land Law, on the previously issued Certificate or issue a new Certificate if the land user so requests, update and rectify the database and land register, and return the Certificate to the land user or forward it to the People’s Committee of the commune for delivery to the land user.

3. The duration of the procedure stipulated in this Article shall be decided by the Provincial People’s Committee but must not exceed seven working days.

Hong Khanh

– 05:52 08/02/2025