Ho Chi Minh City aims to pilot construction permit exemption for residents

(Chinhphu.vn) - Many people and businesses in Ho Chi Minh City expressed their excitement and joy at the news that, starting from 2026, they only need to register when they need to build a house, instead of having to ask for permission as at present.

According to experts, exempting construction permits will bring many practical benefits to people, businesses and the State - Photo: VGP/Le Anh

Ho Chi Minh City is stepping up the approval of urban planning and design projects and architectural management regulations as a basis for people to be exempted from construction permits when building individual houses, according to the Prime Minister 's direction.

At the conference to announce the project to adjust the general planning of Ho Chi Minh City to 2040, with a vision to 2060, which took place on June 25, Ho Chi Minh City leaders emphasized that the approved planning this time creates a solid and important legal basis, which is a guideline for the City to concretize development goals in the new period.

Wards and communes quickly deploy zoning and detailed planning.

To concretize the goals, at the conference, Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Nguyen Van Duoc requested the leaders of departments, branches (especially the Department of Construction), communes and wards to deploy zoning and detailed planning as soon as possible to serve as a basis for management and investment reception. Local management is in accordance with the general planning announced by the City, strictly following the zoning and detailed planning. On the basis of the detailed planning, no construction permits are required but only registration is required.

Previously, also at the announcement of 9 planning projects in Thu Duc City (HCMC) on June 23, Mr. Hoang Tung, Chairman of Thu Duc City People's Committee, said that based on the approved 1/2,000 scale zoning plans, Thu Duc City will urgently establish and cover the detailed planning projects at a scale of 1/500. This will be an important basis for construction management, urban development management and moving towards implementing the policy of exempting construction permits for individual houses. The goal is that by the end of 2025, there will be areas in Thu Duc City with approved 1/500 planning and moving towards piloting exemption of construction permits for individual houses from January 1, 2026.

According to the leader of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Construction, the Government has issued Decree 140/2025/ND-CP regulating the division of authority between two levels of local authorities in the field of state management under the Ministry of Construction . Accordingly, the authority to grant construction permits for individual houses and level 3 and 4 works will be transferred from the People's Committees of districts to the People's Committees of wards and communes.

The Department of Construction is focusing on reviewing the planning, prioritizing the decentralization of construction licensing authority. At the same time, it is coordinating with the People's Committees of districts and Thu Duc City to review and compile statistics on eligible areas. These are areas that have detailed planning at a scale of 1/500 and fully meet the technical and legal conditions as prescribed. At that time, people do not need to apply for a construction permit but only need to notify the commencement of the project.

According to statistics from the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Construction, the city currently has 360 areas, with about 55,000 lots and plots of land eligible for exemption from construction permits. The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Construction is urgently collecting opinions from localities on the list of areas eligible for exemption from construction permits to synthesize, report and submit to the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee for consideration and decision.

As a private enterprise in the construction sector and specializing in building housing projects for people and businesses in Ho Chi Minh City, Mr. Tran Quang Hung, Director of Manh Hung Construction Company Limited, expressed his excitement and joy at the news that, starting from 2026, when there is a need to build a house, only registration is required, instead of having to ask for permission as at present.

According to Mr. Hung, the exemption of construction permits for people and businesses will bring many practical benefits to people, businesses and the State. Accordingly, by eliminating the step of applying for a construction permit, people and businesses can quickly implement projects after completing the design and appraisal process without having to wait for a permit, thereby saving time and money. Not only that, eliminating construction permits also helps reduce administrative costs and limit negativity.

In addition, abolishing construction permits also means that the administrative apparatus will have to change its urban management method, managing based on planning instead of administrative intervention on each individual file as it is now. However, for this policy to be truly effective, according to Mr. Hung, localities need to improve their monitoring and post-auditing capacity. Planning information must be digitized, and an open data system must be built so that people and businesses can look it up anytime, anywhere.

According to experts, to fundamentally solve the problem of exempting construction permits, localities need to speed up the approval of planning projects, especially 1/500 planning and urban design. Once there is a plan, people will know clearly where to build roads, where to build trees, schools, see if their land is affected by the planning or not and can know the coefficient, construction density, and height of floors to design the architecture for their house.

Le Anh

Source: https://baochinhphu.vn/tphcm-huong-toi-thi-diem-mien-giay-phep-xay-dung-cho-nguoi-dan-102250626123804758.htm