The Ho Chi Minh City Real Estate Association (HoREA) has just sent a document to the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee requesting permission and providing solutions to manage the short-term apartment rental model.
Since February 27, 2025, when Decision No. 26/2025 of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee officially took effect, many apartment buildings in the city have simultaneously issued notices prohibiting short-term apartment rental activities by day and week.
According to HoREA, this ban has directly affected the livelihoods of about 8,740 apartment owners in 24 apartment buildings, causing thousands of workers to lose their jobs.
In an interview with Lao Dong, lawyer Pham Thanh Tuan - Hanoi Bar Association, real estate legal expert - commented that legally, the owner renting a short-term apartment under the Airbnb model (connecting tenants with people with houses and rooms for rent) still has no unified understanding.
The 2023 Housing Law prohibits "using apartments for purposes other than residential purposes". However, the law does not clearly explain what "for living" means. Therefore, many people are understanding that apartments for long-term lease (monthly or yearly) are considered "for living" and allowed. However, if the apartment is still rented out for a short time (in hours, days or weeks), similar to hotel accommodation services, it is "not for living" and is banned.
However, Article 10 of the 2023 Housing Law stipulates the rights of home owners: "use housing for residential purposes and other purposes not prohibited by law". short-term or long-term apartment rental is not actually subject to prohibited acts under Article 3 of the Housing Law; not a matter of "converting functions and purposes of use" or "changing or damaging the load-bearing structure; dividing or separating apartments", therefore not contrary to the purpose of "residence" as prescribed by law.
By the end of the first quarter of 2025, Ho Chi Minh City is the only locality in the country to issue a regulation prohibiting the use of apartments for short-term accommodation business purposes through platforms such as Airbnb, according to Decision No. 26. The regulation only allows projects with mixed-use purposes (with tourist apartments) to do business in accommodation services.
On the other hand, in mid-2024, the Ministry of Construction issued a document responding to people's petitions, affirming that home owners have the right to rent for short-term accommodation but must meet the conditions stipulated in the Housing Law 2023 and the law on tourism. Thus, it can be seen that the Ministry's viewpoint is not to prohibit, but to move towards conditional management.
The unclear legal situation has caused short-term apartment rental activities to still cause strong controversy in the residential community in apartment buildings.
Lawyer Pham Thanh Tuan commented that instead of maintaining an unclear or unsynchronized state between provinces and cities, Vietnam needs to change from the mindset of "if you can't manage, then ban" to a proactive approach, creating a suitable legal corridor to develop the Airbnb model in a controlled way. This also ensures personal ownership of assets, while also being in line with the trend of "shared economy".
If choosing a conditional management method, the most important thing is to build a clear legal framework to make the accommodation market transparent, encourage tourism development, increase tax collection and help people have more income. On the other hand, closely monitoring business conditions and internal regulations of apartments helps ensure stability and living value of the community.
In reality, in places where Airbnb is well managed, tourism is developing strongly, and the local economy is also busier. Although this model is not perfect, if controlled by requirements such as activity registration, declaration of guests staying, full tax payment, ensuring fire safety... then it is completely possible to promote benefits while still ensuring urban order.
