According to Point d, Clause 1, Article 89 of Housing Law No. 27/2023/QH15, social housing is only allowed to be transferred when the minimum period is 5 years from the time of full payment of the house purchase.
If buying a social housing unit for less than 5 years and wanting to resell it, the buyer can only resell it to the following 2 subjects:
- Investor of social housing projects.
- Subjects eligible to buy social housing.
Thus, if not the two subjects but still deliberately buy and sell social housing before 5 years, the sale, transfer, and lease contract will be invalid. The buyer will be forced to hand over the social housing to the management unit. In case of intentional non- handover, the People's Committee (UBND) at the provincial level will enforce the house recovery.
According to Clause 10, Article 88 of the 2023 Housing Law, it is affirmed: In case of selling or leasing social housing in violation of the provisions of this Law on subjects or conditions for buying or leasing social housing, the sale, lease-purchase contract is invalid and the buyer or lessee must hand over the house to the investor of the social housing construction investment project, the social housing management unit; in case of not handing over the house, the People's Committee at the provincial level where the house is located will organize enforcement to recover the house.
The handling of social housing purchase fees is carried out in accordance with the provisions of the law on civil matters; the handling of social housing purchase rental fees is carried out in accordance with the provisions of Clause 1, Article 175 of this Law; the compulsory recovery of social housing is carried out in accordance with the Government's regulations.
In addition, cases of deliberately selling social housing that does not meet the conditions prescribed in Article 64 of Decree 16/2022/ND-CP will also be subject to the following penalties:
- Fine from 40 - 60 million VND for selling/leasing/leasing-purchasing social housing to the wrong subjects or not ensuring the conditions prescribed by the Housing Law.
- Fine from 100 - 120 million VND if the lessee/rent-purchaser/buyer of social housing sells/rents/lends the house in violation of regulations.
- Forced to reclaim social housing or have to return the money to the buyer or lessee.
Note: The above fine is the fine applied to organizations, for individuals who violate the law, the fine is equal to 1/2 of the above fine (according to Point c, Clause 3, Article 4, Decree 16/2022/ND-CP).
