The Department of Agriculture and Environment (NNMT) of Ho Chi Minh City has just issued an urgent document to the People's Committees of 168 wards, communes and special zones guiding the implementation of issuing certificates of land use rights and ownership of assets attached to land (pink books) in the area.
The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development said that it has received documents from wards and communes requesting guidance for cases of pink books that have been issued according to Decision No. 230/1989 of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee and other relevant housing laws in the periods before August 1, 2024 such as certificates of house ownership (issued by the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Housing and Land); house purchase and sale, transfer permits; land use right certificates (white paper, black letters, often called white paper; white paper with blue letters, often called green paper).
In addition, there are also decisions certifying land use rights; land allocation papers and other types of certificates of houses and land issued by competent state agencies of Ho Chi Minh City in the past that are not in accordance with the forms according to the provisions of land law and housing law at the time of issuance of the certificate, but now people have applications for pink book issuance, which falls into the case of first-time issuance or re-issuance.
Regarding this issue, according to the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, for cases where there are blank papers, green papers, decisions to certify land use rights, land allocation papers, certificates of house ownership that have been issued according to Decision No. 230/1989 and other relevant housing laws through periods, the Department of Land Administration has issued guidance.
Specifically, for other types of land use right documents dated before October 15, 1993, as prescribed by the Provincial People's Committee in accordance with the reality in Ho Chi Minh City after consolidation as a basis for considering issuing pink books to households and individuals using land, they have been specifically specified in Decision No. 95/2024 of the old Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee, Decision No. 43/2024 of the old Binh Duong Provincial People's Committee and Decision No. 43/2024 of the old Ba Ria - Vung Tau Provincial People's Committee.
In addition, according to the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, based on legal regulations, only in cases where land users have the following types of documents: land use right certificate (1); certificate of ownership of houses and land use rights (2); certificate of ownership of houses (3); certificate of ownership of construction works (4); certificate of land use rights, ownership of houses and other assets attached to land (5); certificate of land use rights, ownership of assets attached to land (6), land changes registration is carried out.
In case of having documents from 1 - 5, if there is a need to reissue a pink book, re-issuance is carried out. Other cases of using houses and land without documents from 1 - 5, using land before October 15, 1993 and having one of the documents specified in Clause 1, Article 137 of the 2024 Land Law, the first pink book is issued and land use fees are not required to be paid.
Cases of land use according to the provisions from clauses 2 to 9 of Article 137 and Articles 138, 139, 140, 141 of the 2024 Land Law also fall into the case of first-time pink book issuance.
Previously, through reviewing the types of pink books issued in Ho Chi Minh City (old), the Department of Agriculture and Environment issued Official Dispatch No. 7139/2015 determining that white paper and green paper also belonged to the case of first-time pink book issuance.
A report by the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Agriculture and Environment shows that in the first 5 months of 2026, the number of cases granted pink books for the first time in Ho Chi Minh City was only 15 cases, a sharp decrease compared to 274 cases in the same period last year.
At commercial housing projects, 18,661 houses have been granted pink books. While there are still 13,665 dossiers that cannot be signed for pink books because homebuyers have not fulfilled their obligation to pay registration fees.
In order to remove existing bottlenecks, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee has issued a document directing to accelerate the progress of issuing pink books to homebuyers at housing development projects in the area.
The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Agriculture and Environment said that the bottleneck in land prices and procedures is having a very clear direction. Ho Chi Minh City is also urgently building a new land price adjustment coefficient to apply from July 1 according to the simplified procedure.
