Novaland review: services, fees, pros and cons

Novaland Investment Group Corporation traces back to 1992, when founder Bùi Thành Nhơn set up Thành Nhơn Co., Ltd.; the business was reorganised and rebranded as Novaland in the mid-2000s. The group listed on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HOSE: NVL) in December 2016, which means — unlike most privately held Vietnamese developers — its financial statements and bond disclosures are a matter of public record rather than sales-office claims. Over three decades, Novaland grew into one of Vietnam's largest developers by scale, building its name on integrated, resort-style townships combining housing, hospitality, golf and marina components: Aqua City in Đồng Nai, NovaWorld Phan Thiết in Bình Thuận and NovaWorld Hồ Tràm in Bà Rịa–Vũng Tàu, alongside a portfolio of residential towers in Ho Chi Minh City.

Since late 2022, the group has been managing a well-publicised debt restructuring, part of the wider liquidity crisis that hit Vietnam's corporate-bond market that year. A government task force set up in 2023 to unblock stalled real-estate projects has since been involved in resolving planning-status issues at some of its developments, including Aqua City, and founder Bùi Thành Nhơn returned to chair the group directly through this period. Novaland remains a listed, operating company throughout — not a defunct one — but the restructuring is a material fact for any buyer to weigh alongside its scale.

The single most important fact for a Hanoi-based buyer to know: Novaland has no signature residential project inside Hanoi. Its developments sit in Ho Chi Minh City and the southern and central-coast provinces around it — a genuinely different proposition from a Hanoi apartment, closer to a resort or second-home purchase. If that is what you are looking for, the legal framework is identical everywhere in the country: foreign buyers are capped at the 30% foreign-ownership quota per building, title is issued as a renewable 50-year Pink Book (Sổ hồng), and the property must sit within a commercial project eligible for foreign ownership under the Housing Law 2023. Novaland's resort projects include villas and landed houses as well as apartments — see our guide to what foreigners can buy in Vietnam for how the rules differ by property type.

Because several Novaland project phases have gone through planning-status adjustments during the group's restructuring, due diligence matters more here than at a developer with a clean recent record: before paying a deposit, confirm the specific block's developer license and request the bank guarantee that protects your payments through completion — the same checks we recommend as part of standard due diligence on the developer, the title and the project for any Vietnamese purchase. As with every developer in Vietnam, local mortgage lending to non-resident foreigners remains limited; see our mortgage guide before assuming you can finance locally. Buyers whose priority is a primary residence or investment apartment inside Hanoi should instead compare Hanoi-focused developers such as those in our Vinhomes vs Masterise Homes comparison.

Legal facts referenced in this review — the 30% foreign-ownership quota, the renewable 50-year tenure and the Pink Book system — are governed by the Housing Law 2023 (Law No. 27/2023/QH15). Corporate facts about Novaland — founding date, listing, flagship projects and its ongoing debt restructuring — are drawn from the company's public disclosures as a HOSE-listed issuer and from Vietnamese business press coverage. Novaland is publicly listed and files audited financials, but figures beyond what is stated on this page, and the forward-looking status of individual project phases, should be verified directly before you commit funds.