Land rent, land prices and Resolution 254: annual or one-off rent and the rights each carries, the land price table and adjustment coefficient, valuation methods, rent incentives and land use tax

Two ways to pay, two different assets

When the State leases land, the lessee pays either annual rent (thuê đất trả tiền hằng năm) or one-off rent for the whole lease term (thuê đất trả tiền một lần cho cả thời gian thuê). When it allocates land for a housing project, it charges a land use levy (tiền sử dụng đất), which works like one-off rent. The payment method is not only a cash-flow choice. It decides the legal character of the asset the investor holds.

Under Article 41(3) of Land Law No. 31/2024/QH15, a foreign-invested company that holds allocated land or pays one-off rent may transfer the land use right and its buildings, lease and sublease them, mortgage them to a credit institution licensed in Vietnam, and contribute them as capital, all for the remaining term. Under Article 41(2), a company paying annual rent may mortgage, contribute and sublet only its own assets on the land and its rights under the lease contract, and may sell those assets with the lease rights on the conditions of Article 46. Article 11 of Resolution No. 254/2025/QH15 relaxed the sale rule from 1 January 2026: an annual-rent lessee may sell its buildings once they have a construction permit (where one was required) and have been completed in accordance with the approved plan and project. The practical consequence is that one-off rent produces an asset that lenders will take as security and buyers will pay for, while annual rent produces a right that is harder to finance and to sell.

Before 2026, Article 120 of the Land Law confined one-off rent to agricultural, forestry, aquaculture and salt projects, land in industrial parks, clusters and high-tech parks and their worker housing, commercial and service land used for tourism or office business, and social housing for rent. Everything else paid annual rent. Article 4(2) of Resolution No. 254/2025/QH15 removed that restriction: the State leases land, outside the allocation cases in Articles 118 and 119, and the land user may choose one-off or annual rent, except a public service unit using allocated land commercially under Article 30(3). Two further limits apply to land funds managed by State agencies: land leased from such a fund by auction must be paid for once, and a project already on annual rent from such a fund may not switch to one-off rent. Under Article 4(9)(a), lessees whose leases predate the resolution may also choose, subject to the same State land fund exception.

Switching between annual and one-off rent

Article 30 of the Land Law lets a lessee on annual rent switch to one-off rent for the remaining term, with the land price determined afresh at the time the switch is approved, and lets a lessee on one-off rent switch to annual rent, with the rent already paid deducted from the annual rent due. Combined with the wider choice under Resolution No. 254/2025/QH15, this gives investors on annual rent a route to a bankable asset: a manufacturer that leased land on annual terms in 2015 can now apply to pay the remaining term's rent once, obtain a certificate reflecting one-off payment, and then mortgage the land use right to finance an expansion or sell it with the plant. The cost is the full value of the land for the remaining term at today's price table and coefficient, so the decision should be modelled, as the example below shows.

Industrial park developers follow the same pattern under Article 202(3): a developer on annual rent may switch to one-off rent for the remaining term, and its ability to offer one-off subleases depends on having done so (Industrial parks and economic zones).

How land prices are set after Resolution 254

The Land Law 2024 recognised two kinds of land price. The land price table (bảng giá đất), issued by each province, set prices by land type, area and position and was used mainly for households and individuals, taxes and fines. The specific land price (giá đất cụ thể), determined case by case by valuation under Article 160, was used for companies receiving allocated land or one-off leases and for compensation. Case-by-case valuation proved slow and contentious, and Resolution No. 254/2025/QH15 largely replaced it.

Under Article 7 of the resolution, the land price table is decided by the provincial People's Council, applied from 1 January 2026 and amended when necessary, and is built by land type, area and position, down to individual plots where digital cadastral maps and price databases exist. Under Article 8, the provincial People's Committee issues a land price adjustment coefficient (hệ số điều chỉnh giá đất), the percentage by which the table price for each land type, area and position is increased or reduced, applied from 1 January each year and adjustable during the year or for particular areas. Under Article 5, land use levy, land rent and compensation are calculated on the table price multiplied by the coefficient, and allocation and lease decisions no longer need to state a land price. Where land is auctioned, the winning bid replaces the table price. A specific land price is still determined for sea reclamation projects and other cases in which the table cannot be applied. The input data used to build the table and the coefficient must date from the 24 months before the authority's instruction to prepare them (Article 6(2)), and a provincial appraisal council chaired by a People's Committee leader reviews both (Article 9). Decree No. 49/2026/ND-CP allows the table to be amended when the market fluctuation coefficient moves outside the limits set by the People's Council.

Article 158 of the Land Law still lists the valuation methods used to build the table and, where a specific price is needed, to value a plot: the comparison method, where at least three comparable transactions or auctions exist; the income method, for agricultural land and non-residential land producing measurable income; the residual method, for project land whose development revenue and costs can be estimated; and the land price adjustment coefficient method, for compensation on adjacent plots with table prices. Input data must generally come from the 24 months before valuation.

How rent is calculated

Annual rent is the leased area multiplied by an annual unit price, which is a percentage of the land price used for rent. Under Article 26 of Decree No. 103/2024/ND-CP, as amended by Decree No. 291/2025/ND-CP from 6 November 2025, the percentage is between 0.25% and 3%, set by the provincial People's Committee after consulting the People's Council, by area, road section and purpose of use, and may distinguish buildable land from land used only for landscaping or ancillary purposes. Under Article 153(2) of the Land Law, annual rent is fixed for five-year cycles from the date of the lease decision; at each new cycle it is recalculated on the price table then in force, but any increase over the previous cycle may not exceed the rate set by the Government, which itself may not exceed the total national consumer price index for the preceding five years.

One-off rent is the leased area multiplied by the land price for the lease term, now derived from the table and coefficient rather than a case-specific valuation. Where land is auctioned, the bid price applies to either method. Where the investor has built infrastructure that the State recognises, its cost may be deducted. Decree No. 50/2026/ND-CP sets the detailed rules under the resolution, including rent for an investor that takes over a project from a dissolved or bankrupt investor, which Article 4(7) of the resolution now allows to receive an adjusted land term against payment of additional rent.

Rent is assessed by the tax office from the land authority's file and paid in the amounts and by the dates in the tax office's notice. Late payment attracts interest at the rate under tax administration law, currently 0.03% a day (FAQ 30), and persistent failure to pay is a ground for recovery under Article 81(6) of the Land Law.

From lease decision to the first rent payment

1. Choose the payment method in the applicationState in the lease application whether rent will be annual or one-off, having modelled both; the choice is recorded in the lease decision and the lease contract.
2. Obtain the lease decision and sign the lease contractThe provincial People's Committee decides the lease; the land authority signs the contract stating area, term, purpose and payment method. Since 2026 the decision need not state a land price.
3. Apply for exemptions and reductionsWhere the project qualifies for a multi-year rent exemption or reduction, file the claim with the lease file so that it is recorded; full-term exemptions need no separate application under Article 10 of Resolution No. 254/2025/QH15 (Investment incentives).
4. Receive the rent noticeThe land authority transfers the file to the tax office, which calculates rent on the table price, coefficient and provincial percentage and issues a notice of the amount and payment dates.
5. Deduct advanced compensationWhere the investor advanced compensation for land clearance under an approved plan, ask for it to be deducted from rent or levy under Article 94(2) of the Land Law; Article 3(8) of the resolution applies the deduction across the whole project and each decision.
6. Pay and obtain the certificatePay by the notice dates; once one-off rent or levy is paid, the land registration office issues the certificate recording the payment method, which lenders will check.
7. Diary the five-year cycleFor annual rent, diary the end of each five-year stability cycle and check the new notice against the price table, the coefficient and the inflation cap.

Rent incentives and land use tax

Exemption from, or reduction of, land use levy and land rent is one of the four forms of investment incentive under the Law on Investment. Under the Land Law decrees, exemptions typically cover the construction period, then incentive periods that lengthen with the priority of the sector and the difficulty of the location, up to the whole term for specially incentivised projects. The eligibility rules, and their interaction with the corporate income tax incentives that no longer reward a park location alone, are in Investment incentives. Article 10 of Resolution No. 254/2025/QH15 simplifies the procedure: where land is wholly exempt, no land price is determined and no exemption application is needed, and annual reductions decided by the Government in response to economic conditions apply without application.

Separately, holders of non-agricultural land pay non-agricultural land use tax under Law No. 48/2010/QH12. The taxable value is the used land area multiplied by the price per square metre in the land price table, fixed for five years (Article 6); in an industrial park the area excludes shared infrastructure. Production and business land is taxed at 0.03%, and residential land at progressive rates of 0.03%, 0.07% and 0.15% by reference to the residential land quota (Article 7). Where the State leases land for a project, the lessee is the taxpayer; under a private lease the contract may allocate the tax (Article 4). The amounts are modest beside rent, but the tax is declared and paid separately. The Ministry of Finance proposed amendments to the tax in July 2026 to align its categories with the Land Law 2024.