According to data provided by the Ho Chi Minh City Real Estate Association, in Ho Chi Minh City alone, there are about 100 projects in which real estate and commercial housing project investors are waiting for competent state agencies to announce additional land use fees and land use fees.
In which, there is an additional amount of money that land users must pay for the period not including land use fees and land rents such as Novaland has 13 projects, Hung Thinh Land has 8 projects or the empire City Project of the De Vuong City Joint Venture (cooperation between Tien Phuoc Company, Tran Thai Company, Keppel Land and Gaw Partners Capital) ...
A typical case is the Thu Thiem Eco Smart City Smart Complex Project invested by Lotte Properties HCMC Company Limited under Lotte Group (Korea), located in the most prime location in Thu Thiem. The project has a total investment of VND 20,100 billion.
Due to the impact of the inspection process and some legal problems, after 8 years since signing the investment contract and 3 years since the groundbreaking ceremony, the Thu Thiem Eco Smart City project is still stalled and this has led to a significant increase in land use fees, land rents and total investment costs.
On July 8, 2025, the Department of Agriculture and Environment of Ho Chi Minh City informed about the Thu Thiem Eco Smart City project with an approved land price of VND 16,190 billion.
During the implementation process, Lotte Properties HCMC has proposed to the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee many issues such as: adjusting the total investment to 57,000 billion VND; changing the composition and capital contribution ratio between Lotte Group's subsidiaries in the consortium; extending progress and removing legal obstacles.
When the petitions have not been resolved, the company will receive a notice of payment of land use fees and land rents from the Ho Chi Minh City Tax on the amount of money that land users must pay additionally for the period not yet included in land use fees and land rents for this Project up to more than VND 2,600 billion.
From that reality, in an interview with Lao Dong Newspaper reporters, Mr. Le Hoang Chau - Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Real Estate Association (HoREA) said that he has just sent a document recommending the National Assembly to add new regulations, allowing the collection of additional fees related to the period without calculating land use fees and land rents for cases where businesses are not at fault.
According to HoREA's proposal, businesses will not have to pay additional fees if at the time of issuance of the land price decision, no agency had determined the error. In case there is a conclusion that the enterprise violates, the additional fee and the late payment fee will be calculated. For businesses that have paid but are not at fault, the authorities can deduct this amount from other financial obligations.
Mr. Le Hoang Chau said that many projects are currently facing difficulties with the new regulations, which may force businesses to pay additional land use fees even if they do not violate. This is mainly due to delays in issuing land price decisions and land use fee notices from state agencies, while businesses cannot intervene in the valuation process or adjust the planning.
HoREA proposes to add a mechanism for excluding errors and deducting paid fees to avoid the situation of businesses being blamed, while helping the investment environment to be more transparent and stable.
According to Decree 291 recently issued by the Government, amending a number of contents of Decree 103 on land use fees and land rents (effective from November 6), the additional land use fee collection will be applied at 3.6% per year on the land use fee payable instead of 5.4% as previously proposed. The time for calculating the collection is determined from the time of financial obligations to the 8th working day from the date of land price decision. Decree 291 also allows recalculation of the additional amount paid according to the previous Decree 103.
