Rescuing abandoned urban areas

Anyone passing through Mai Chi Tho Street – the central thoroughfare of the Thu Thiem New Urban Area (Thu Duc City) – at the beginning of 2025 cannot help but feel saddened upon witnessing thousands of abandoned apartments in the 38.4-hectare resettlement area in Binh Khanh ward.

Rescuing abandoned urban areas – “death asset repositories”

Anyone passing through Mai Chi Tho Street – the central thoroughfare of the Thu Thiem New Urban Area (Thu Duc City) – at the beginning of 2025 cannot help but feel saddened upon witnessing thousands of abandoned apartments in the 38.4-hectare resettlement area in Binh Khanh ward.

These apartments were built with the goal of providing on-site resettlement for 10,000 households displaced to make way for the Thu Thiem New Urban Area, but instead they have become "storage for dead assets".

Like many resettlement areas in Hanoi , despite its prime location and the fact that surrounding luxury apartments cost up to 100 million VND/m2, this resettlement area is currently shrouded in desolation. With 3,790 vacant apartments, Ho Chi Minh City spends tens of billions of VND annually on maintenance, yet the infrastructure continues to deteriorate, trees are dying, and sidewalks and access ramps to some buildings are sinking…

Illustrative image

A house is a place to live, a home. Therefore, no matter how much money is spent on renovations, an abandoned house remains just a cold block of concrete. It is known that these apartments have been auctioned off by Ho Chi Minh City three times. The first time was in 2017 with a starting price of 8,800 billion VND. The second time was in 2018 with a starting price of 9,100 billion VND.

The third attempt was in 2021 with a starting price of 9,900 billion VND. However, all three attempts failed because there were no bidders.

Ho Chi Minh City still intends to auction off the aforementioned apartments. According to the plan, to facilitate the auction process, the completion of legal documents for these 3,790 apartments will take place from August 2024 to August 2025. Before October 2025, the authorities will select and hire an auctioneer. The auction is expected to be held before November 2025.

Besides the resettlement area in Binh Khanh, Ho Chi Minh City currently has nearly 9,000 state-owned resettlement apartments that have not yet been allocated to residents, scattered across 85 apartment buildings/clusters in Thu Duc City, districts 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, Binh Thanh, Go Vap, Phu Nhuan, Tan Binh, Tan Phu, Binh Chanh district, and Nha Be district.

For the residents, many still long for a place to live in those vacant apartments, as they currently have to live in makeshift, damp, and unsafe rental housing. For the businesses, it's a failure, because they created a project but couldn't sell the units or attract residents for various reasons.

From an economic perspective, it's a huge waste. Just consider this: with apartments priced at 2 billion VND each (in the affordable segment), the amount of money currently "tied up" in these apartment buildings exceeds 18,000 billion VND. This capital would be enough to build nearly 10 Phan Dinh Phung stadiums according to the new investment plan, 3 Thu Thiem 4 bridges, and more than enough to build the Can Gio bridge across the Soai Rap river, expand National Highway 13, etc. Therefore, any waste of public assets, no matter how it's explained, is unacceptable.

To address the issue of these assets, experts and Ho Chi Minh City authorities have considered various options, including converting them into social housing. However, due to strict regulations on social housing, the city's policy is to continue allocating resettlement housing in some projects, while the remaining properties will be auctioned off.

Ho Chi Minh City has also issued a plan to implement measures to address stalled, halted, or delayed projects and constructions; and unused or inefficiently used buildings, offices, and public facilities… in order to thoroughly and effectively implement General Secretary To Lam 's directive on combating waste. The city has assigned the Department of Construction to review housing projects, including public housing, resettlement housing, social housing, and other state-owned housing; and to identify a list of unused or inefficiently used projects and constructions to propose a plan to resolve the issues.

People are awaiting swift action in dealing with abandoned properties and a series of stalled projects, because despite much discussion and debate, these cold, concrete structures remain stubbornly standing. This is also the reality in many other localities, including Hanoi, where numerous "warehouses of dead assets" are left exposed to the elements.

If there is sufficient determination and decisive action, clarifying the authority to handle issues, proposing solutions in accordance with newly enacted laws, and assigning responsibilities clearly – as stated by Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh at a recent meeting between the Prime Minister and the Steering Committee on reviewing and resolving difficulties and obstacles related to projects with the leaders of Ho Chi Minh City – then hundreds of large projects currently stalled will soon become effective, and inevitably, many "storehouses of dead assets" will become treasures.

Source: https://baodautu.vn/batdongsan/giai-cuu-cac-khu-do-thi-bo-hoang---nhung-kho-chua-tai-san-chet-d239598.html