Inheritance & Gifting of Vietnam Property by Foreigners (2026)

When a foreigner who owns an apartment in Vietnam passes away — or wants to gift it to a relative abroad — the first question is rarely “how much tax?” It’s “can my heirs actually keep it?” The honest answer is “sometimes, and even when they can’t, they almost never lose the value.” This guide explains exactly how inheritance and gifting of Vietnamese residential property work for foreigners in 2026, who is allowed to take title, and what happens when an heir falls outside the rules.

This is general information for foreign buyers and investors, not legal or tax advice. Inheritance with a “foreign element” is one of the most document-heavy areas of Vietnamese law, and outcomes turn on your specific facts. Always confirm with a licensed Vietnamese notary or lawyer before acting.

Foreigners can inherit and receive gifted property — but ownership is conditional

A foreigner can be named as an heir or gift recipient of a Vietnamese home, but whether they take title or only the cash value depends on whether they qualify to own it. Under the Law on Housing 2023 (in force since August 2024), foreign individuals may purchase, lease-purchase, receive as a gift, inherit, and own residential housing inside eligible commercial development projects — but never the land itself, and never land outside a project. The same eligibility test that governs buying a home governs inheriting or being gifted one.

Two structural limits matter. First, foreign ownership in a single condominium building is capped at 30% of the total apartments, and foreign-held detached houses (villas, townhouses) are capped at 250 units within an area equivalent to one ward by population. Second, foreign-owned homes carry a 50-year ownership term from the date the Certificate (the “pink book”) is issued, extendable once. An inheritance or gift does not reset that clock — the heir steps into the remaining term, not a fresh 50 years.

If you are still deciding what to buy, our foreigner guide to property in Vietnam and the detailed buying process for foreigners explain how the quota and 50-year term are checked before you ever sign — and our team can pre-screen any unit’s foreign quota for you, so reach out via the contact page.

The “enjoy the value” rule: why ineligible heirs are rarely left empty-handed

If a foreign heir or gift recipient cannot legally own the home — because the building’s foreign quota is full, the property sits in a national-defence or security zone, or the person simply isn’t an eligible individual — Vietnamese law lets them receive the monetary value instead of the title. This is the single most important and most misunderstood point in this entire topic.

In practice, an ineligible heir has three recognised paths:

Situation	What the heir can do
Heir qualifies to own	Register the Certificate in their own name and hold the home for the remaining term
Heir does not qualify (quota full, security zone, ineligible person)	Sell the home (or authorise a sale) and receive the net proceeds
Heir does not qualify but wants to keep it in the family	Gift or transfer the home to someone who is eligible to own it

So a non-resident foreign child inheriting their late parent’s Ho Chi Minh City apartment does not “lose” the asset if the building is already at its 30% foreign cap. They are entitled to the value — typically realised by selling the unit (often to a Vietnamese buyer, who faces no quota) — and may then remit the proceeds abroad. This protective principle has carried through every recent housing law and remains in force in 2026.

Overseas Vietnamese (Viet Kieu) now have far stronger rights

Since the Land Law 2024 took effect on 1 January 2025, overseas Vietnamese are treated very differently from ordinary foreigners — and far more favourably. If you are a Vietnamese citizen living abroad (holding a valid Vietnamese passport), you now have essentially the same land-use and housing rights as a domestic citizen: you can receive, transfer, mortgage, inherit, and gift land-use rights without the 30%/250 quota and without the 50-year term.

Persons of Vietnamese origin who have lost Vietnamese nationality also gained ground: they may inherit residential land-use rights and the house attached to it, and receive gifted housing from lawful heirs. For a Viet Kieu family, this means a parent can often pass a home to a child as a genuine, indefinite-tenure inheritance rather than a value-only claim. The practical gatekeeper is proof of Vietnamese nationality or origin — passports, birth certificates, household records — which must be properly authenticated. This is a meaningful planning advantage worth confirming early.

Who actually inherits: wills versus statutory succession

Vietnamese law decides succession either by a valid will or, in its absence, by a fixed statutory order under the Civil Code 2015 — and for real estate located in Vietnam, Vietnamese law applies regardless of the deceased’s nationality. This “immovables follow the law of the place where they are located” rule (lex rei sitae) is why a foreign will alone never fully settles a Vietnamese apartment.

If there is no valid will, the estate passes by statutory succession in ranked classes. The first class is the spouse, biological and adopted parents, and biological and adopted children; only if no first-class heir exists does the second class (grandparents, siblings, grandchildren) inherit, and so on. Heirs share equally within a class.

Crucially, Vietnam imposes compulsory (reserved) heirship. Even if a will excludes them, the deceased’s minor children, parents, spouse, and adult children unable to work are each entitled to at least two-thirds of what they would have received under statutory succession — and this protection applies even to heirs who are foreigners living abroad. A will drafted overseas that ignores this can be partially overridden. Heirs who committed serious crimes against the deceased can be disqualified entirely (Article 621, Civil Code 2015).

Because these rules interact with the foreign-ownership limits above, families planning ahead often pair a will with the right buying structure. Our about page explains how Happy Land supports foreign owners through the full lifecycle, and the contact page is the fastest way to get a referral to a succession-focused notary.

Tax: inheritance and gifts between close relatives are usually exempt

Real estate inherited or gifted between close family members is generally exempt from Vietnam’s personal income tax; everyone else pays a flat 10% on the property’s value. Vietnam has no separate “inheritance tax” or “estate tax” — instead, receiving an inheritance or gift is treated as taxable personal income, with a broad family exemption.

The exemption for real property covers transfers between: husband and wife; parents and children (including adoptive and foster); parents-in-law and children-in-law; grandparents and grandchildren; and siblings. Outside those relationships, inherited or gifted real estate is taxed at 10% of the portion exceeding the VND 10 million threshold per transaction, payable when the asset is registered in the heir’s name.

Scenario	Typical PIT treatment
Apartment inherited by spouse, child, parent, sibling, etc.	Generally exempt
Apartment gifted to the same close relatives	Generally exempt
Property to a non-relative (friend, partner, distant kin)	10% of value above VND 10 million
Cash, shares, or business capital inherited — even within family	10% (the exemption is real-estate-only)

Note three honest caveats. The exemption applies to the real estate itself; inherited cash or securities are taxed at 10% even between close relatives. When an ineligible heir sells the home to realise its value, a personal income tax on the sale (commonly 2% of the transfer price) and registration/notary fees also apply. And your home country may tax the inheritance or the repatriated funds under its own rules. Figures here are indicative reference rates, not a quote — see our overview of taxes and costs of buying property in Vietnam and confirm current rates with a Vietnamese tax adviser.

Getting the money out: repatriating sale proceeds

A foreign heir who sells an inherited Vietnamese home can generally remit the net proceeds abroad, but only through the banking system and with a clean paper trail. Vietnam’s foreign-exchange rules permit transferring the monetised value of an estate overseas once taxes and fees are settled and the source of funds is documented. Banks will want the inheritance declaration, the notarised sale contract, tax-clearance evidence, and proof the original purchase was made through proper channels.

This is exactly why how you buy affects how your heirs exit. Paying for the original unit from an offshore source into a Vietnamese capital/transaction account, and keeping every receipt, makes later repatriation straightforward; cash-in-hand or undocumented payments create problems years later. Our guide to repatriation of funds from Vietnam property walks through the account types and documents step by step.

The procedure: documents and authentication for a foreign-element estate

Settling a foreign-linked inheritance in Vietnam is a notarial process driven by authenticated documents — get the paperwork wrong and the file stalls for months. The core steps are: establish the right to inherit (the will, or proof of kinship for statutory heirs), publicly notarise an inheritance declaration in Vietnam, settle tax and fees, then register the Certificate in the eligible heir’s name (or proceed to sale if no heir qualifies).

For foreign heirs and foreign documents, the recurring failure point is authentication. Death certificates, kinship records, and wills issued abroad must be consularly legalised and accompanied by a certified Vietnamese translation to be accepted. A will written in another language must be translated and the translation notarised in Vietnam; a will made abroad is recognised if its form complies with the law of the place it was made and its content does not violate Vietnamese law. Kinship must be clearly and documentarily proven — this is where non-relative or distant claims most often fail.

One administrative footnote for 2026: Vietnam’s mid-2025 administrative reform abolished the district level and redrew wards and provinces. Because the 250-house detached-home cap is measured “per ward,” the boundaries defining that quota have changed in many areas — another reason to have a current professional check the specific location rather than rely on older maps.

Plan ahead — it is far cheaper than fixing it later

The recurring lesson across every case is that inheritance and gifting outcomes are mostly decided at the moment of purchase, not at the moment of death. Buying inside a building with foreign-quota headroom, documenting the payment trail, choosing the right project, and pairing a Vietnamese-recognised will with the family’s nationality status will largely determine whether your heirs hold the home, sell it cleanly, or face a tangle.

To see eligible, quota-checked options that travel well across generations, browse our current projects — including landmark developments such as The Global City, Eaton Park, and The Metropole Thu Thiem. When you’re ready to map your own succession plan to a specific unit, talk to our advisory team and we’ll connect you with the right legal and tax specialists.

Bottom line: foreigners can inherit and gift Vietnamese property; eligible heirs take title for the remaining term, ineligible heirs receive the value and may remit it abroad, close-family transfers are usually tax-exempt, and overseas Vietnamese now enjoy near-citizen rights. The risk is almost never losing the asset — it’s losing time and value to avoidable paperwork errors.