Reader Ngo Tuan (Vinh Phuc): I bought a piece of agricultural land because it was cheap. Will I be able to convert it to residential land later?
YouMe Law Firm LLC replied:
According to Clause 2, Article 9 of the 2024 Land Law, based on the purpose of use, agricultural land includes the following types of land:
- Land for growing annual crops, including rice land and land for growing other annual crops.
- Land for growing perennial plants.
- Forestry land, including special-use forest land, protective forest land, and production forest land.
- Land for aquaculture.
- Concentrated livestock land.
- Salt land.
- Other agricultural land.
According to Point b, Clause 1, Article 121 of the 2024 Land Law, when converting agricultural land to non-agricultural land (including residential land), permission must be obtained from a competent State agency.
When converting agricultural land use to residential land, land users must fulfill financial obligations according to the provisions of law; land use regime, rights and obligations of land users are applied according to the type of land after the purpose of use is converted.
Regarding authority, Article 123 of the Land Law stipulates that the Provincial People's Committee decides to allow the change of land use purpose for domestic organizations; the District People's Committee decides to allow the change of land use purpose for individuals.
In case of permission to change the purpose of agricultural land use to commercial and service purposes with an area of 0.5 ha or more, there must be written approval from the Provincial People's Committee before the decision is made.
Pursuant to Clause 2, 5, Article 44 and Article 48 of Decree 102/2024/ND-CP, when a household or individual wants to change the land use purpose (in cases where permission is required), it is necessary to prepare a set of documents as follows:
- In case of not being subject to investment policy approval or investor approval according to investment law, it is necessary to prepare: Application for change of purpose of use according to Form 02c in the Appendix issued with Decree 102/2024/ND-CP.
- In case of investment policy approval and investor approval according to investment law, it is necessary to prepare: Application for change of land use purpose according to Form 02c in the Appendix issued with Decree 102/2024/ND-CP;
Copy of the document approving the investment project, decision approving the investment policy, decision approving the investment policy and simultaneously approving the investor according to the provisions of the law on public investment, the law on investment; document approving the results of selecting investors for investment projects under the public-private partnership method (if any);
One of the certificates specified in Clause 21, Article 3, Clause 3, Article 256 of the 2024 Land Law or one of the types of documents specified in Article 137 of the 2024 Land Law or a land allocation decision, a land lease decision, a decision allowing the change of land use purpose of a competent state agency according to the provisions of the law on land over the periods.
