Can non-agricultural land be converted to residential land?
According to Clause 5, Article 116 of the 2024 Land Law, households and individuals are allowed to change the purpose of using non-agricultural land that is not residential land to residential land if it is consistent with the district-level land use planning or the general planning or zoning planning according to the provisions of the law on urban planning approved by the competent authority.
At the same time, in Clause 1, Article 121 of the 2024 Land Law, the conversion of non-agricultural land use purpose from non-residential land to residential land must be permitted by a competent state agency.
Thus, according to the above regulations, households and individuals are allowed to change the purpose of using non-agricultural land to residential land if permitted by competent authorities and in accordance with approved district-level land use planning.
Procedures for converting non-agricultural land to residential land from August 1, 2024
Procedures for converting non-agricultural land to residential land are stipulated in Article 227 of the 2024 Land Law as follows:
Cases of land use purpose change must be permitted by competent state agencies and must be carried out in accordance with the following procedures:
- Land users submit applications for change of land use purpose according to regulations.
- The competent land management agency shall check the conditions for changing land use purposes. In case the dossier does not meet the regulations, the land user shall be instructed to supplement the dossier and resubmit it to the competent land management agency.
- The competent land management agency has the following responsibilities:
+ In case of applying land prices in the land price list to calculate land use fees and land rent, the competent land management agency shall prepare a dossier and submit it to the People's Committee at the competent level to issue a decision allowing the change of land use purpose, land allocation and land lease.
+ In case of determining specific land prices to calculate land use fees and land rent, the competent land management agency shall prepare a dossier and submit it to the People's Committee at the competent level to issue a decision permitting the change of land use purpose, land allocation, and land lease; organize the determination of land prices, and submit them to the competent authority for approval of land prices to calculate land use fees and land rent.
- Land users pay land use fees and land rents according to the provisions of law; in case of land use fees and land rents reduction, the land use fees and land rent collection agency shall reduce the land use fees and land rents for land users.
- The competent land management agency signs a land lease contract in cases where the State leases land; transfers the dossier to the land registration organization or a branch of the land registration organization to carry out the registration, issue the Certificate of land use rights and ownership of assets attached to land, update and correct the land database, cadastral records and grant the Certificate of land use rights and ownership of assets attached to land to the land user.
- In case of receiving transfer of land use rights and changing land use purpose, the procedure for registering transfer of land use rights and changing land use purpose must be carried out at the same time as the procedure for changing land use purpose according to regulations.
