AIAIG Overseas Real Estate Investment Weekly Report | 2025 Week 46 (Part 1): Latest Real Estate Policies and Overseas Home Buying Information in Southeast Asia, Japan, and Dubai

This issue is the AIAIG Overseas Real Estate Investment Weekly Report for Week 46 of 2025, "Part 1: Policy Direction". Statistical period: 2025/11/10 — 2025/11/16. The main characteristics of overseas policies this week are: Southeast Asia has released or advanced multiple new policies affecting real estate transactions and supply, Japan has seen top-level design discussions in land and tourism management, Dubai continues to advance its 2025 regulatory system, while Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, and other places continue their existing mid-term real estate policy structures. Overall, this week's policies are dense and cover a wide range, making them worthy of close attention for overseas homebuyers and investors.

In mid-November, the Ministry of Construction of Vietnam officially released the "Government Resolution (Draft) on Real Estate Price and Transaction Management" and solicited broad feedback. This draft not only explicitly proposes the establishment of official real estate trading centers, the development of online databases, and the standardization of contract price systems, but also makes substantive adjustments to multi-level housing supply and loan leverage. According to insiders from the Ministry of Construction, if the draft is smoothly approved, it will become one of the most important reforms in Vietnam's real estate supply and demand structure in the past decade. Behind the draft are practical issues in Vietnam in recent years, such as excessively rapid housing price increases, decentralized project approvals, delays in land certificate issuance, and chaotic secondary market prices. In some hot areas of Vietnam, housing prices have risen by over 25% in the past two years, while the quality of existing housing stock in some regions is uneven, and the agency system is opaque, leading to numerous complaints. The draft aims to achieve nationwide and transparent management of price information, land registration, and project filing through government-led unified management, fundamentally reducing price chaos.

The Malaysian Ministry of Finance has confirmed that in the first implementation cycle of the 2026 fiscal year, the stamp duty rate for non-resident property purchases will be adjusted and uniformly increased to approximately 8%. This move aims to reduce the impact of foreign capital on the mid- to low-priced residential market and ensure affordability for local residents. At the same time, the government will finalize specific supporting measures by the end of 2025, including exemption conditions for developers and subsidy mechanisms for local first-time homebuyers. Additionally, the government announced that it will release the "Housing Reform Plan to Address Unfinished Building Issues Before 2030" on November 20, which includes incentives for the "build-then-sell" model, reforms to the supply mechanism for affordable housing land, and upgrades to the financial supervision system for developers. These reforms do not directly affect the eligibility of foreigners to purchase properties, but they will significantly alter the future supply structure of real estate projects in Malaysia, thereby indirectly impacting the assets available to foreign investors and long-term supply-demand relationships.

The Republic Act No. 12252, which took effect in the Philippines in September 2025, has been fully implemented. Its core content allows foreign capital to lease private land for up to 99 years under specific industrial projects, an increase of nearly 24 years compared to the old system. Although residential land is not included in the open scope, this policy has a significant attraction for foreign investment entering industrial parks, port economic zones, and technology parks. The resulting side effects are: the long-term increase in demand for residential housing and worker dormitories around cities has driven new planning projects in some second-tier cities (such as Davao and Cebu). The real estate industry believes that this move will change the population flow and urban layout of the Philippines over the next 15–20 years. For real estate investors, this means that the demand for housing in industrial belts and employment cluster areas will gradually strengthen.

The Indonesian government recently confirmed that the "100% VAT borne by the government" policy announced in 2024 will continue to be implemented, with priority given to residential properties priced at no more than 5 billion Indonesian rupiah. The Ministry of Finance assesses that this policy helps improve the homeownership rate for middle-class families and plays a key role in destocking the real estate industry. The market generally expects the government to maintain at least partial tax incentives by 2026 to stabilize the construction industry and financial system. Although foreign homebuyers cannot directly benefit from this tax reduction policy, its indirect effects are strong: the supply of cost-effective housing increases, developers promote mid-range projects to obtain tax incentives, and the proportion of high-priced investment projects decreases, making the market structure in some cities more oriented towards "owner-occupancy first."

Political discussions in Japan have significantly heated up this week. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has requested the Cabinet Secretariat to submit a comprehensive policy proposal on 'foreigner-related issues' by January 2026, covering land regulation, tourism management, the residency qualification system, and the social security system. Although the policy has not yet reached the level of 'restricting foreign purchases of real estate,' the direction of official discussions is very clear: to increase transparency in land-related approvals, strengthen the classification and regulation of uses such as homestays and short-term rentals, and prevent the impact of excessive tourism on residents' lives in certain areas. It is widely anticipated in the industry that Japan may adopt a 'regional classification regulation' approach in the future, rather than nationwide restrictions. The areas most affected will be cities with extremely high tourism pressure, such as parts of Kyoto and Osaka, while general residential areas and long-term rental properties will see limited impact.

Dubai did not issue new laws this week, but the 2025 regulatory system has entered a deep implementation phase. RERA is promoting the developer node acceptance system to strengthen supervision of off-plan project progress; the escrow account system makes the use of home purchase funds more transparent; the REST platform advances online transactions and digital registration, improving market transparency and curbing false listings. For overseas buyers, stronger regulation means lower project risks, especially for off-plan projects. If developers fail to meet project nodes, they cannot receive fund disbursements, which reduces the possibility of unfinished projects and gradually eliminates small and medium-sized developers, thereby increasing market concentration.

Overall, the policy signals in the 46th week of 2025 show the following trends: • Southeast Asia as a whole has entered a phase of "stabilizing prices and controlling leverage + expanding supply"; • Japan is discussing regulations on land and homestay usage, but has not touched on home purchase restrictions; • Dubai is strengthening custody and digital registration, making the market more transparent; • Policies in the Philippines and Indonesia systematically affect the medium- to long-term urban landscape; For Chinese buyers, the policies this week are generally friendly and have improved information transparency, which is beneficial for formulating long-term investment strategies.