Inheritance and Estate Planning: Can Your Foreign Children Inherit the Apartment, or Only Its Cash Value?

The core distinction: inheriting the RIGHT vs. keeping the APARTMENT

Two separate questions get fatally blurred. (1) Are your foreign children heirs? Yes - unconditionally. Under Article 651 of the 2015 Civil Code they sit in the first order of heirs alongside your spouse and parents, and the law is explicit that a heir's nationality or residence abroad does not remove the right to inherit. (2) Can they hold ownership of the apartment? That depends on whether each heir personally satisfies Vietnam's foreign-ownership conditions. If yes, they can be re-titled on the So hong (Pink Book). If no, they still inherit - but they inherit the VALUE of the asset, realized by transferring or selling it to an eligible party, not the standing title. So the honest answer to 'will my children get a Pink Book or only cash?' is: it depends on each child's own eligibility at the moment of inheritance, not on yours.

When a foreign heir CAN take the apartment (and get a Pink Book)

1. The heir personally meets the Housing Law 2023 foreign-ownership conditions: typically a foreign individual permitted to enter Vietnam, evidenced by a valid passport with a Vietnam entry stamp or equivalent (Decree 95/2024/ND-CP).
2. The property is of a type foreigners may own - in practice an apartment in a commercial project NOT in a security/defense-restricted zone, and within the building's 30% foreign cap. A landed villa/townhouse on its own land plot is far harder for a foreigner to hold.
3. The building still has room under the 30% per-building quota at the time of re-titling - if the foreign cap is already full, even an eligible heir may be blocked from registering ownership and pushed to the value route.
4. Practical steps: open the inheritance declaration before a Vietnamese notary, complete the inheritance-division document among all co-heirs, then file the certificate change at the local land registration office within ~30 days of distribution to avoid administrative penalties.

When a foreign heir gets ONLY the value (and must sell or transfer)

1. If the heir does NOT qualify to own housing - or the asset is a type/zone foreigners cannot hold (most land-use-right cases, restricted areas, or a building already at its 30% cap) - the heir cannot be entered on the certificate.
2. The law's remedy: the heir is entitled to the VALUE of the inherited property. The asset is transferred or sold and the heir receives the proceeds; they cannot be a registered owner on the So hong.
3. This is the single most common shock for Taiwanese and Korean legacy buyers: the family keeps the economic value, not the keys. Plan for liquidation, not occupation, unless every intended heir is independently ownership-eligible.
4. Worked example: a Taipei-resident daughter with no Vietnam entry history inherits her father's Ho Chi Minh City apartment. She is a valid Art. 651 heir, but as she cannot register the title she takes the sale proceeds after the unit is transferred to an eligible buyer - net of any taxes and fees on the disposal.

The 50-year term: fresh clock or remaining years? (genuinely unresolved)

Foreign ownership of an apartment is capped at 50 years, renewable. When an ELIGIBLE foreign heir inherits, Housing Law 2023 does NOT clearly state whether they receive a fresh 50-year term from the date of their new certificate, or only the REMAINDER of the deceased's original term. This ambiguity is acknowledged across Vietnamese legal commentary and has not been settled by Decree 95/2024/ND-CP. Do not assume the generous reading. Before relying on a term length for estate value, ask the specific local land office in writing how they are currently applying it, and treat the conservative case (remaining years carry over) as your planning baseline. Note also that a Vietnamese-citizen heir who inherits the same unit generally faces no 50-year cap - heir nationality changes the term outcome.

Mixed-nationality couples: if your Vietnamese spouse dies

Where a Vietnamese citizen owns the home and the surviving spouse is foreign, the foreigner is a first-order heir to the value - but a foreigner generally cannot hold a residential LAND-use certificate. So even a freehold landed property usually cannot be retained in the foreign survivor's name and must be transferred or sold, with the surviving spouse taking the value. If the asset is a quota-eligible apartment and the survivor independently qualifies to own, re-titling may be possible. Two protective moves while both spouses are alive: (1) document the marital-property share clearly so the survivor's half is not disputed, and (2) make a notarized will. Verify your exact position with a lawyer - facts (asset type, zone, the survivor's residency status) change the outcome.

Gifting now: 0% to direct family, 10% to everyone else

1. Gifts or inheritances of real estate between DIRECT family are exempt from personal income tax (0%): spouse-spouse; natural/adoptive parent-child; parent-in-law and son/daughter-in-law; paternal and maternal grandparent-grandchild; and full siblings.
2. That same direct-family list is also exempt from the 0.5% registration fee (le phi truoc ba) on re-titling - a meaningful saving on a high-value unit.
3. OUTSIDE that circle (e.g. nephew, friend, unmarried partner, step-relations not listed), the recipient pays 10% PIT on the value of the gift/inheritance above a VND 10 million per-event threshold.
4. A lifetime gift to an eligible child can pre-empt the messy post-death value-only outcome AND lock in 0% tax - but the child must still independently qualify to own, or the gifted apartment runs into the same can't-hold-title wall. Gifting solves tax, not eligibility.
5. These rates are set by tax circulars and are subject to change - confirm the current threshold, exemption list and rates with your advisor before acting on a specific number.

The document chain for overseas heirs (where deals actually stall)

1. A will, power of attorney, or proof of relationship executed abroad must typically be NOTARIZED in the home country, then CONSULAR-LEGALIZED (apostille is not generally recognized by Vietnam), then SWORN-TRANSLATED into Vietnamese to be accepted by a Vietnamese notary and land office.
2. Expect to prove the family relationship (birth/marriage certificates) and provide passport copies for every co-heir - missing or unlegalized relationship proof is the most common cause of stalled inheritance files.
3. If heirs cannot travel, appoint a Vietnam-based representative via a consular-legalized power of attorney to handle the notarized inheritance declaration and certificate change.
4. Build in time: legalization and translation cycles routinely take weeks, while the title-change filing window is short (~30 days from distribution). Start the document chain early.
5. This guide is general information, not legal or tax advice. Asset type, building quota status, each heir's residency, and current circulars all change the result - confirm your specific case with a VPM advisor and a licensed Vietnamese lawyer/tax agent before acting.