Each residential real estate will have its own unique electronic identification code from March 1, 2026.

Many new policies on real estate, registration of foreign
representative offices, penalties for administrative violations in the field of
archiving shall come into effect from March, according to a report from the
Government News.

New policy on real
estates

Under the Government’s Decree 357/2025/ND-CP of December 31,
2025, that will take effect on  March 1,  each residential real estate will have its own
unique electronic identification code, which is a string of alphanumeric
characters, up to a maximum of 40 characters, assigned uniquely to each house
or real estate unit within construction projects managed in the housing and
real estate information system and database.

The new decree stipulates that  Departments of Construction at provincial/municipal
level shall be responsible for attaching electronic identification codes to
housing development projects on their territory. This will be done
simultaneously with the issuance of notices confirming that the housing meets
sales conditions, for housing projects in the future.

The national real estate database system is designed to be
open and interconnected, complying with technical standards for databases,
application programming interfaces (API), and access permission models. The
system must fully meet security and information safety requirements under the
national data architecture framework.

New regulations on licensing
time for foreign representative offices in Vietnam

Under the Government’s Decree 62/2026/ND-CP of February 13,
2026, that amended and supplemented  Decree 06/2005/ND-CP regarding the
establishment and operation of representative offices for foreign research and
cooperation organizations, foreign organizations can now submit their
applications through the National Public Service Portal, in addition to direct
submission or postal services.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is required to verify the
validity of the application within one working day of receipt.  From March 1, the timeframe for the ministry
to grant or deny a license shall be officially halved from 30 working days to
just 14. In cases where an application is rejected, the ministry must provide a
written explanation to the applicant.

Administrative fine
for using archived documents to defame and offend individuals

Under the Government ‘s  Decree 31/2026/ND-CP of January 21, 2026,  penalties for administrative violations in the
field of archiving will be applicable from March 1, 2026.

Accordingly, the maximum fine for individuals committing
administrative violations in the field of  archiving shall be VND30 million (more than
$1,150). Meanwhile, the maximum fine for organizations shall be VND60 million.

New level of
penalties for road traffic violations

Under the Government’s  Decree No. 336/2025/ND-CP of  December 22, 2025, new  administrative sanctions for violations in
road operations will  be applied from
March 1, 2026, with  maximum fine to
VND75 million ($2,850) for individuals and to VND150 million for organization
for violating road traffic regulations.

Meanwhile, a fine of VND3–5 million and VND6–10 million will
be imposed on individuals and organizations, respectively,  in case they commit one of the following acts:
arbitrarily transferring terminal cards from one vehicle to another;
destroying, forging, deleting data or interfering with terminal card content;
opening or maintaining anonymous or impersonated traffic accounts.

Decree 336 also stipulates many other levels of penalties.
Specifically, fines from VND10–20 million shall be imposed for acts such as:
not disclosing information as prescribed; selling and checking tickets that
cause harassment to ticket buyers; not selling fully or limiting the selling
time of monthly and quarterly tickets; receiving cash but not delivering
tickets or delivering tickets improperly; lax professional procedures so that
vehicles that do not buy tickets still pass through the station.

Vneconomy-Pham Long