Rebuilding old apartments: The State plays a key role

Ho Chi Minh City has 474 old apartment buildings built before 1975; of which, 16 are grade D (severely damaged, dangerous) with nearly 1,200 households. Of these, 14 apartment buildings had grade D inspection results in the period 2016-2017.

Stick with it until the solution is clear.

Vinh Hoi Apartment Building (Ward 6, District 4) has 4 floors with 244 households, with a D-level inspection result since 2016. On the morning of September 9, Ms. Vo Thi Huynh's small coffee shop received a few guests in this apartment building. When reporters from Nguoi Lao Dong Newspaper asked about moving to a temporary residence, everyone shook their heads in disappointment. "If there were better places to live, people wouldn't have to stay here. Even though we know it's dangerous, we have no other choice. We're staying here until the compensation and resettlement support plan is clear," said Mr. Thanh Tam.

Living in Vinh Hoi apartment building since 1969, Ms. Vo Thi Huynh said that her apartment is more than 30 square meters wide, according to the "greeting" of a previous investor, the compensation is only more than 3 billion VND. Meanwhile, her family has 4 sons who are all married, so resettlement is impossible. "Staying in the apartment building and selling small items every day also earns a few tens of thousands of VND in profit, enough to cover food and drink. If I go to temporary residence, I don't know how to make money" - Ms. Huynh shared.

In particular, Ton That Thuyet apartment building (Ward 4, District 4) with 174 households, in February, there was an incident of collapsing beams, corridor floors, and railing walls in block C. District 4 People's Committee directed urgent reinforcement of damaged areas during the relocation of households to apartment building No. 4 Phan Chu Trinh Street (Binh Thanh District). However, to date, no households have been relocated.

In District 4, there are 5 class D apartment buildings. Currently, only 6bis Nguyen Tat Thanh apartment building has completed the relocation of residents, Truc Giang apartment building has relocated 120/123 households; Ton That Thuyet apartment building (lots A, B, C) and Hoang Dieu apartment building (lot Y) with a total of 219 households have not yet relocated.

Similarly, Tan Binh district has 5 class D apartment buildings. Of which, apartment building 40/1 Tan Phuoc, apartment building 170-171 Tan Chau, 47 Long Hung have completed the evacuation of residents. Meanwhile, residents at apartment building 137 Ly Thuong Kiet, 149-151 Ly Thuong Kiet are still "holding on" to dangerous places.

According to Mr. Truong Tan Son, Vice Chairman of Tan Binh District People's Committee, the Department of Construction has agreed with the proposal not to invest in rebuilding 3 apartment buildings (170-171 Tan Chau, 137 Ly Thuong Kiet, 149-151 Ly Thuong Kiet) but will auction them because they do not meet the standards for building apartment buildings after deducting the road boundary. Tan Binh District will propose to the City People's Committee to allow the merging of the 47 Long Hung apartment building with the adjacent state-owned land (about 2,000 m2). The 40/1 Tan Phuoc apartment building will have its planning adjusted for reconstruction.

Xây lại chung cư cũ: Nhà nước giữ vai trò chủ lực - Ảnh 1.

Vinh Hoi apartment building was identified as seriously damaged and dangerous since 2016, but many households still do not want to relocate.

Calling for investment in rebuilding old apartments: Not easy!

District 5 has one D-class apartment building, 440 Tran Hung Dao, and the relocation of residents was completed a few months ago. Mr. Nguyen Xuan Trung, Vice Chairman of District 5 People's Committee, said that 20 households here have temporarily moved to An Phu apartment building (District 6) without having to pay rent, only paying apartment service fees. Regarding the land at 440 Tran Hung Dao apartment building, the district proposed to use it for public purposes.

Similarly, in District 6, the 119B Tan Hoa Dong apartment building was adjusted to theeducational land function (1,760 m2 wide). While waiting for the compensation, support and resettlement plan, 70/80 households here have temporarily moved to the 243 Tan Hoa Dong apartment building.

In District 1, there are 3 class D apartment buildings including: 23 Ly Tu Trong (demolished), 128 Hai Ba Trung (residents relocated but not demolished yet) and 155-157 Bui Vien (99/100 households relocated). Although the residents were relocated early, in the past, District 1 has also encountered difficulties in calling for investment to rebuild old apartment buildings.

Assessing the renovation and reconstruction of apartment buildings, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee said that the implementation of investment and construction still faces many difficulties and obstacles in investment approval procedures, land recovery, land allocation, compensation and resettlement support due to the overlapping and unsynchronized application of laws on housing, land and investment.

Change the way of doing things, solve the deadlock

Dr. Ngo Viet Nam Son, an architect, said that if the entire reconstruction of old apartment buildings is not successful, the government must take care of it. The government can advance money to rebuild the apartment buildings and organize for people to resettle on the spot. It is very difficult for people to have money to buy new apartments, so they need an installment payment policy. In case people do not want to pay in installments and take care of the resettlement themselves, compensation will be paid in an amount corresponding to the land value of the apartment building.

"If the state has limited financial resources, it can call on the private sector to participate by issuing "apartment bonds" with attractive interest rates to mobilize capital" - Architect Son suggested.

Sharing the view that the state should take care of rebuilding old apartment buildings, Dr. Nguyen Huu Nguyen, from the Ho Chi Minh City Urban Development Planning Association, emphasized that the main bottleneck is investment capital. "It is difficult for investors to carry out projects if there is no profit or low profit, while many apartment locations are not attractive to investors because of limited planning and architectural criteria," Dr. Nguyen pointed out.

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