Can French citizens buy property in Vietnam? Yes, inside a quota, for a term. The project is the gate.

Can French citizens buy property in Vietnam?

Yes, an apartment or a house in an eligible commercial housing project, provided the buyer is permitted to enter Vietnam. What a foreign individual cannot do is hold land use rights directly, buy outside an eligible project, or buy in an area closed to foreign ownership on national defence or security grounds. The rules apply to all foreign nationalities alike.

Vietnam's framework is the Housing Law of 2023 and the Land Law of 2024. Neither sorts foreign buyers by nationality. A French buyer, a Korean buyer and a Singaporean buyer meet the same project gate, the same quota and the same term.

What that means in practice is that the first question is never the price. It is whether this specific development is on the list of projects in which foreign ownership is permitted, and whether that development still has room inside its foreign allocation. Both are answerable in writing before a deposit.

The full ownership position: Vietnam foreign ownership explained.

What are the quota and the term in Vietnam?

Foreign owners are capped at 30 percent of the apartments in a single building, and at a fixed ceiling on separate houses within a ward. The term of ownership for a foreign individual is 50 years from the date the certificate is issued, extendable once on application. A Vietnamese spouse changes the position to the domestic one.

Two things follow from the cap, and both are checkable before money moves.

• The cap can already be used up. A building at its foreign allocation cannot register another foreign owner until an existing one sells. Ask the developer for the current foreign allocation in writing, dated.
• The term is an asset, and it runs. A unit bought in year one of its 50 year term and a unit bought in year twelve are not the same asset at the same price, whatever the listing says. The renewal is an application, not an automatic event.

The term and the renewal: Vietnam's 50 year term, explained.

Which projects can a French buyer actually buy in?

Only commercial housing projects that are eligible for foreign ownership, and not those in areas closed to foreign ownership on national defence or security grounds. The eligible list is published by the authorities and is project specific. A development being marketed to foreign buyers is not the same thing as a development on the list.

This is where an otherwise ordinary purchase fails, and it fails late, at the certificate stage, after the money has gone. The order that protects you is simple.

1. Confirm the project is eligible for foreign ownership.
2. Confirm the building's current foreign allocation in writing.
3. Confirm the contract is the notarised form and the payment route is the correct one.
4. Then talk about price.

The project gate and the restricted areas: Vietnam foreign ownership explained. The document that proves the right: the pink book, explained.

Is there any published figure for French buyers in Vietnam?

No. Vietnam does not publish foreign property registrations by the buyer's nationality, so there is no French number to quote and this page does not invent one. The only French-specific official fact that is published is an entry one: French citizens are on Vietnam's unilateral visa exemption list.

Resolution 44/NQ-CP of 7 March 2025 exempts citizens of twelve countries, France among them, from a visa for a stay of up to 45 days from the date of entry, regardless of passport type and purpose of entry, subject to the ordinary entry conditions. The resolution runs from 15 March 2025 to 14 March 2028.

That is an entry rule and nothing more. It does not create a right to own, it does not extend the 50 year term, and it is not evidence that French buyers are or are not active in the market. Where a published nationality breakdown does exist, it is worth reading: Thailand publishes one, and France is in its top ten.

The published Thai figures: French buyers in Thailand.

What does a French tax resident have to declare at home about a Vietnamese apartment?

Worldwide income under Article 4 A of the Code general des impots. The property for the IFI under Article 964, which covers real estate situated in France or outside France above 1,300,000 euros net on 1 January. And any account opened, held, used or closed abroad, on form 3916 and 3916 bis, with a fine of 1,500 euros per undeclared account.

How the France and Vietnam convention treats the rent is not stated here, because that convention was not read for this page. Treaties differ: some exempt the income and still count it to set the rate on other income, others give a credit for the foreign tax. The texts are published by the French tax administration, and the applicable one is the one to read with an adviser.

One point that is not treaty dependent, and that catches people with term-limited rights. A 50 year right held over property abroad is still a real estate asset for the purposes of the IFI test. Whether and how it is valued is a question for an adviser, but it is not automatically outside the test because it has an end date.

The French side in full: French tax and reporting on property abroad.

What does a foreign owner pay in Vietnam, and how does the money move?

On the Vietnamese side there is tax at purchase, tax on rental income and tax on sale, and the payment route is the part to plan. Purchase money from abroad is expected to come through the banking system into the correct account type, and that record is what supports moving proceeds out later. Buying does not create residence.

The money route is the same discipline as everywhere else on this site. Get the account type and the payment path confirmed in writing by the bank before the first instalment, not after the third one. This page states published requirements and does not describe any route around any of them.

The tax schedule: Vietnam property tax for foreigners. The money route: transferring money to Vietnam for a property.

Header photo: Viet Phi, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. All credits: image credits.