What is the Pink book in Vietnam?

7 min readNov 28, 2021

1. What is the red book or the pink book?

The red book or the pink book are nicknames of (now defunct) crucial real estate documents issued in Vietnam. The red book was a certificate of land use rights issued by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment. The pink book was a certificate issued by the Ministry of Construction regarding homeownership or development/construction work rights.

Now, instead of the red or pink books, there is only one certificate issued — namely the Certificate of Land Rights Use and Other Assets Attached to the Land by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment. The document determines the right to use the property and ownership of the property; property owners also use it to exercise the rights of the land.

That being said, the colloquial terms of “red book”, and especially “pink book”, are still used to informally refer to the Certificate of Land Rights Use and Other Assets Attached to the Land. For simplicity’s sake, we refer to it as the pink book.

2. Why do you need the Pink book?

Before conducting any real estate transaction, you must digest the information in the pink book. The critical details form the basis of verification and protection of your rights and obligations.

Understanding the information helps you to:

Choose the right property at the right location for your desired outcome
Evaluate whether the land rights use/zoning area suits your purpose (residential, commercial, etc.) and avoid the headache of converting the usage later on
Note whether the property/land is likely to increase in value in the future
Avoid being scammed by dishonest brokers
Resolve potential land disputes

3. Understanding the information

The Certificate of Land Rights Use and Other Assets Attached to the Land, or as we call it the pink book, is made up of 4 sheets of pink paper, any additional sheets are white. It contains the following information:

Page 1: Land Ownership Information and Certificate Issue Number

Land ownership information

On page 1 of the certificate, you will find information on the owners of the land and of any assets tied to it. The property’s present owner may not be the person mentioned on the first page due to previous transactions. In this case, the present owner’s information will be listed on the additional white page(s).

The information here will include the full name, date of birth, ID/CCDC number, and home address of the owner(s). Should the owner be an organization, relevant details such as the organization’s name and license number will be included.

Certificate issue number (serial number):

The serial number includes 2 uppercase letters and 6 digits, printed in black, embossed by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.

Page 2: Information about the land and assets

Information related to the parcel of land, house, and other assets attached to the land

This section outlines what the land and assets can be used for within the framework of the law.

Parcel of land: The number of the land parcel on the cadastral map according to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment’s regulations.

Map sheet number: The ordinal number of the cadastral map sheet with the land parcel certificate issued by the commune-level administrative unit.

Address: House number, street name (if any), residential area, administrative unit, commune, ward, district, city, province.

Area: The area of the land recorded in square meters (m2), rounded to one decimal place.

Form of use: The form of use can be private use or common use (under the use of many landholders); the purpose of use can be agricultural land or non-agricultural land.

Expiry date: If the land has a long-term use, here it will state “long-term”, should the land be used for a definite period, it will state an exact expiration date.

Sources of use:

There are 3 common types:

Recognition of land use rights with land use levy: If the land allocation is revoked, compensation policies apply.
Land allocated by the State without collection of land use levy: No compensation will be made if the land is recovered by the State, except for compensation for investment expenses if the land was allocated to an industrial production enterprise.
Land lease by the State: If the land is recovered, there will only be compensated for investment costs and none for the land.

Type of housing: The specific type of house according to the provisions of the law on housing, e.g. individual house, or villa.

Construction area: The area of land occupied by construction work in square meters.

Floor area: Square meters of the construction floor for a single-story house or the total construction floor area of multi-story buildings.

Form of ownership: Single ownership (one owner), common ownership (multiple owners) or both.

Housing grade (class): Housing classification as regulated by the law on housing and the law on construction.

Terms of ownership:

If the property is being bought for a definite period, the expiry date of the ownership period will be included here.
If the building is on leased or borrowed land from other landowners, the expiry date will be the end of the lease/loan term.
If there is no time limit, it will be marked with dashes.

Other constructions:

Should the property have construction work done, the following information will be recorded:

Type of work: this could include the name of the approved project, the construction planning license/permit, or the investment license.
Detailed information about the project.

Production forests/planted forests/plant crop

If the land includes production forests, it will include the following information:

Plant type
Area
Ownership
Creation and expiry date

Notes:

This could include any history of certification, details on road boundaries, ditches, protection corridors, land area, construction works that have been approved or rejected, any financial obligations, etc.

The issued certificate

Here, you will see the date of certification, which will also be stamped and signed by the relevant authority.

The certificate record number

The district-level government/council issues certificates starting with “CH,” followed by a five-digit ordinal number.
The provincial-level People’s Committees or Department of Natural Resources and Environment issue certificates starting with “CT,” followed by a five-digit ordinal number.

The Department of Natural Resources and Environment issues certificates to households, individuals, residential communities, or overseas Vietnamese. On these, you will see the letters “CS,” followed by a five-digit ordinal number.

Page 3: Land and property diagrams

Parcel of the land diagram, house, and other land-attached assets on the Certificate of land use right:

Here, you will see a diagram of the land and other assets, information on the location, condition, area, and properties attached.

The parcel of land diagram:

The shape and length of the land
The number of the plot
Relevant boundaries and landmarks
In the event the land parcel has different land-use terms or landholders, the boundary lines will be accompanied by a note explaining its purpose
If the land has apartment buildings that includes common areas, the boundary of the common use land will be shown

The diagram of houses and other properties attached to land:

The diagram of houses and other assets attached to the land is shown by a continuous dashed line
For houses, the construction boundary will be shown
For apartments, the floor plan of where the apartment is located in the apartment building will be shown
Any additional certificates or changes in land-attached assets will be shown here, or on the supplemental pages
The size of the diagram

Changes after the certificate were first issued

This section shows any changes that have taken place since the certificate was first issued. This could include any changes in ownership, transference of the land use right/house/assets, changes in land use, division of plots, changes in financial obligations, etc.

Top tip: the buyer should read this section carefully to understand who the current owner of the land is and the land’s current land use rights.

Page 4: Certificate barcode

Certificate barcode:

The barcode is structured in the form MV = MX.MN.ST, where:

MX is the code of the commune-level administrative unit where the land parcel is located. (If the certificate is issued under the authority of the People’s Committee of the province, their code will be added in front).
MN is the code of the year of issuance of the certificate, which includes the last two digits of the year.
ST is the archival number of the land registration file.

Some other topics about Vietnam real estate that you might be interested in:

Property valuation in Vietnam: https://en.blog.homebase.com.vn/everything-you-need-to-know-about-property-valuations-in-vietnam/
Comprehensive Guide to Property Titles and Ownership in Vietnam: https://en.blog.homebase.com.vn/comprehensive-guide-to-property-titles-and-ownership-in-vietnam/

Get more tips and insights about buying and selling property in Vietnam here: https://en.blog.homebase.com.vn/