Pursuant to Clause 1, Article 121 of the 2024 Land Law, the change of land use purpose is regulated as follows:
Article 121. Change of land use purpose
1. Cases of changing land use purposes that must be permitted by competent state agencies include:
a) Conversion of rice-growing land, special-use forest land, protective forest land, and production forest land to other types of land in the agricultural land group;
b) Conversion of agricultural land to non-agricultural land;
c) Conversion of other types of land to concentrated livestock land when implementing large-scale concentrated livestock projects;
d) Conversion of non-agricultural land allocated by the State without land use fees to other types of non-agricultural land allocated by the State with land use fees or land lease;
d) Conversion of non-agricultural land other than residential land to residential land;
e) Conversion of land for construction of public works, land used for public purposes with business purposes to non-agricultural production and business land;
g) Conversion of non-agricultural production and business land that is not commercial or service land to commercial or service land.
Thus, the case of converting residential land from agricultural land is one of the cases of changing the purpose of land use must be permitted by a competent state agency.
The authority up to now for allowing individuals to settle on residential land from agricultural land still belongs to the district-level People's Committee (Point a, Clause 2, Article 123 of the 2024 Land Law).
However, this will only be maintained until June 30, 2025. Because from July 1, 2025, the district level will officially stop operating according to the 2-level local government model.
According to the provisions of Point m, Clause 1, Article 5 of Decree 151/2025/ND-CP effective from July 1, 2025, there are the following contents:
Article 5. The authority of the People's Committee at the district level, the Chairman of the People's Committee at the district level shall be transferred to the Chairman of the People's Committee at the commune level
1. The authority of the District People's Committee according to the provisions of the Land Law shall be transferred to the Chairman of the Commune People's Committee for implementation, including:
- Decision on land allocation, land lease, permission to change land use purpose for individuals specified in Point c, Clause 1 and Point a, Clause 2, Article 123 of the Land Law; decision on land allocation for residential communities specified in Point b, Clause 2, Article 123 of the Land Law; decision on agricultural land allocation to individuals specified in Point b, Clause 2, Article 178 of the Land Law;
Accordingly, from July 1, 2025, the authority to permit the conversion of residential land from agricultural land for individuals under the authority of the People's Committee at the commune level.
