According to the provisions of the 2025 Construction Law, some cases are exempt from construction permits from January 1, 2026.
In cases of exemption from construction permits, there are level IV construction works, individual houses with a scale of less than 7 floors with a total floor area of less than 500 m2 and not belonging to one of the following areas: functional area, urban development area identified in the general plan of the city; functional area, rural residential area, urban development area identified in the general plan of urban areas under provinces, under cities, general plan of economic zones, national tourist areas; construction area identified in the general plan of communes; area that has architectural management regulations.
Thus, in certain cases, individual housing projects still have to apply for a construction permit.
Recently, the Ministry of Construction submitted a draft Decree detailing a number of articles of the Construction Law on management of construction activities. The draft is being consulted until March 22, 2026.
One of the notable points of the draft regulation on the main content of construction permits (Article 50). This article has content on individual house construction permits.
According to the draft of the Ministry of Construction, the content of the construction permit includes:
Construction name.
The name and address of the investor.
Location, construction site; construction route for projects according to the route.
Type, level of construction works.
Construction elevation (if any).
Red line boundary, construction boundary (if any).
Construction density (if any).
Land use coefficient (if any).
For civil works, industrial works, and detached houses, in addition to the above regulations, there must also be content on the total floor area, construction area of the 1st floor (ground floor), number of floors (including basement, attic floor, technical floor, attic), and maximum height of the entire project.
The commencement period of the project is no more than 12 months from the date of issuance of the construction permit.
Explaining the necessity of this draft on a practical basis, the Ministry of Construction said that Construction Law No. 135/2025/QH15 has replaced Construction Law No. 50/2014/QH13.
Accordingly, the law has amended contents related to construction activity management such as classification to manage construction investment projects in the form of investment, reducing and simplifying administrative procedures related to appraisal of Feasibility Study Reports, construction permits, and abolishing procedures for appraising construction designs implemented after basic designs at specialized construction agencies.
The draft Decree detailing a number of articles of the Construction Law on construction activity management is built on the basis of inheriting Decree No. 175/2024/ND-CP dated December 30, 2024, amending and supplementing contents to ensure compliance with new policies. Construction Law No. 135/2025/QH15 is assigned to provide detailed regulations, and must also ensure compliance with new laws passed by the National Assembly recently such as the Law on Public Investment, the Law on Urban and Rural Planning, the Law on Planning, the Law on Bidding...
In the process of carrying out administrative procedures on appraisal of the Investment Feasibility Study Report according to the provisions of Decree No. 144/2025/ND-CP dated June 12, 2025, problems and inadequacies arise when operating local governments at 2 levels, localities face difficulties in lacking people with expertise and implementation experience, and material facilities conditions do not meet the requirements for appraisal of the Investment Feasibility Study Report, construction design, inspection of acceptance work for projects with special-grade works, projects in the fields of aviation, railways, and maritime; proposing and recommending assigning specialized construction works management agencies under the Ministry to implement.
According to the requirements of the Steering Committee for implementing the arrangement and reorganization of administrative units at all levels and building a 02-level local government organization model in Official Dispatch No. 174/CV-BCĐ dated December 2, 2025 and Report No. 11296/BC-BNV dated November 27, 2025 of the Ministry of Home Affairs on focusing on removing obstacles, difficulties and specific recommendations of localities, the content on decentralization of appraisal authority in Decree No. 175/2024/ND-CP needs to be reviewed to have regulations suitable to the actual implementation in localities.
The submitted dossiers and contents for appraisal of the Feasibility Study Report and construction permits according to current regulations also need to be reviewed and amended to ensure the spirit of reform and simplification of administrative procedures.
From the above analysis, the development of a Decree detailing a number of articles of the Construction Law on construction activity management to replace Decree No. 175/2024/ND-CP when Construction Law No. 135/2025/QH15 takes effect, in which the contents are inherited from old regulations, and at the same time updated, amended, and supplemented to be consistent with the current legal system and overcome inadequacies in practice is extremely necessary and urgent.
