Pursuant to Clause 2, Article 9 of the 2024 Land Law, agricultural land groups include the following types of land: Land for growing annual crops, including rice land and land for growing other annual crops; land for growing perennial crops; forestry land, including special-use forest land, protective forest land, production forest land; aquaculture land; concentrated livestock land; salt-making land; other agricultural land.
Provided in Point b, Clause 1, Article 121 of the 2024 Land Law, if a land user wants to change the purpose of using agricultural land (the above types of land) to residential land, he/she must be permitted by a competent state agency to change the purpose according to the provisions of law.
Therefore, households and individuals are only allowed to convert agricultural land to residential land if the People's Committee of the district (district, town, city under the province, city under the centrally-run city) where the land is located permits it.
In addition, to apply for land use purpose change, the land user submits a dossier requesting permission to change the land use purpose from agricultural land to residential land to the natural resources and environment agency (where there is land) for settlement according to authority. The application for permission to change land use purpose includes the following documents: Application for permission to change land use purpose; certificate to the natural resources and environment agency.
After receiving the dossier, the Department of Natural Resources and Environment will conduct a dossier review; verify the field, assess the need to change the land use purpose and guide the land user to fulfill financial obligations according to the provisions of law; submit to the People's Committee of the competent level to decide to allow the change of land use purpose; direct the updating and adjustment of the land database and cadastral records.
In case the dossier is not complete and valid, the dossier receiving and processing agency must notify the dossier submitter for complete supplementation according to regulations within no more than 3 months.
When converting land use purposes from agricultural land to residential land, land users must fulfill financial obligations according to the provisions of law; the land use regime, rights and obligations of land users are applied according to the type of residential land after changing the land use purpose.
Thus, after changing the purpose of land use from agricultural land to residential land, the land user can proceed to build a house on the land area with changed land use purpose.
