What the “eligible to sell” permit is, and why to check it before paying a deposit

When you buy an apartment that has not been built yet, what protects you is not the deposit agreement and not the salesperson’s promise. It is a document from the provincial Department of Construction confirming the project is eligible to sell off-plan housing.

What the document is

Under Article 24 of Vietnam’s 2023 Law on Real Estate Business (in force since 1 January 2025), before selling off-plan housing the developer must file a written notice with the provincial real estate business authority — in practice the Department of Construction. Within 15 days, that authority must inspect and reply in writing on whether the housing may be sold.

That written reply is the thing worth trusting. It carries a reference number and a date, and it is issued by the Department — not drafted by the seller.

Why it decides how much you can be asked to pay

The same article caps deposits at no more than 5% of the sale price, and only once the housing already meets the conditions for being put on the market. So if a project has no Department document yet and the seller is asking for 10% or 20%, that figure is itself a reason to stop.

A note for foreign buyers

This permit is one check, not the whole of due diligence. Foreign buyers face two further questions this document does not answer: whether the project is on the list where foreign ownership is permitted, and whether the 30% per-building quota still has room. Those are published separately by each province.

How to check

BĐS Radar reads the lists and documents that Departments of Construction publish, and matches them against the commercial names buyers actually hear. Paste a project name or a listing URL here to see whether Radar found a document, or browse the recorded projects.

What “not found” means

Radar can only read what each Department publishes openly, and disclosure practice differs by province. So:

• Document found — strong evidence, and Radar links straight back to the source so you can verify it yourself.
• Nothing found — this means Radar has not found it, not that the project lacks one. Ask the seller to produce the Department’s document with its reference number and date, then compare.

Radar labels which category every record falls into, and the sources page states what is covered and what is not.