The Vietnamese Ministry of Construction has dropped a proposal that individuals engaging in small-scale property trade should be allowed to sell or lease three to five houses or apartments each per year due to concerns over the infringement of the right to free business.

In the draft decree guiding the implementation of some articles of the 2023 Law on Real Estate Business publicized on the ministry’s portal on Tuesday, the ministry suggested that people trading real estate products on a small scale will not have to set up real estate firms, but they will still be required to conduct transactions in line with civil and notary regulations and declare and pay taxes in line with the law.

Earlier, the Ministry of Construction had outlined three criteria for identifying small-scale property traders.

The first category includes those who transfer or lease three to five existing or undeveloped houses or apartments, or five to ten construction projects annually.

The second criteria identifies people as small property traders if they sell or lease property projects, each covering 1,000-2,000 square meters of land in urban areas or 3,000-5,000 square meters in rural areas per year.

The third criterion proposed by the ministry designates small-scale real estate traders as individuals involved in developing housing projects with two or more floors and fewer than 20 apartments. It also includes those selling and leasing inherited houses and houses of gratitude.

The proposal sparked controversy.

A leader of the Ministry of Construction told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper on Monday that the proposal might violate the business freedom rights of residents.

Lawyer Truong Anh Tu, chairman of TAT Law Firm, suggests that the proposed limit on the number of real estate transactions residents can undertake annually would prevent individuals, who do not establish real estate firms, from hoarding properties.

However, the proposal might raise concerns over the violation of such people's business freedom and creativity.

It might also force small-scale property traders to transact products under others’ names, which would probably provoke disputes.

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