Difficult to relocate residents, renovation of old apartments moves slowly

According to the report of the Ministry of Construction and localities, the whole country has 366 apartment buildings that need to be renovated and rebuilt; of which, only about 42 apartment buildings have completed the renovation and reconstruction, accounting for 11% and 69 apartment buildings are being renovated and rebuilt, equivalent to 19%. In particular, the renovation and reconstruction of apartment buildings in the two major cities of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City have not achieved the set results.

One of the reasons why the rate of renovated and rebuilt apartments is still modest is because local authorities have not been decisive in their involvement. The Supervision Report of the National Assembly's Law Committee clearly states: "The progress of inspection, renovation and reconstruction of apartment buildings in large cities is very slow; in which, there is resistance from the inability to relocate people from dangerous apartment buildings that are at risk of collapse."

From an expert perspective, Mr. Le Hoang Chau - Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Real Estate Association (HOREA) believes that the regulation of "indefinite-term apartment ownership" is not the cause of problems and difficulties in renovating and rebuilding apartment buildings.

The "bottleneck" in recent years is the lack of comprehensive and feasible legal regulations; the lack of consistency and uniformity in legal regulations; and the lack of finding a "balance of interests" to ensure the harmony of legitimate and legal rights and interests of apartment owners and investors - Mr. Chau commented.

However, in reality, when renovating old apartment buildings, it is necessary to receive the consensus of the majority or all residents before it can be implemented. Meanwhile, many residents do not move to hand over the construction site because they do not trust the project, especially the completion progress.

There are currently no specific regulations on public announcement of the term of use of apartment buildings according to the level of construction determined according to the design documents before putting into transaction and the conclusion of inspection and assessment of the quality of apartment buildings for all inspected apartment buildings when the term of use expires.

In addition, the responsibilities of relevant entities in inspecting and evaluating the quality of apartment buildings have not been clearly defined; the incentive mechanism to encourage investors to participate in project implementation is still unclear and incomplete, making it difficult to attract investors; while the pressure to renovate old apartment buildings is increasing, state resources are limited...

A series of these problems are “hindering” the progress of renovating old apartment buildings nationwide. Experts commented that the current Housing Law does not specifically regulate cases where apartment buildings must be demolished for renovation or reconstruction, leading to many problems and different understandings and applications of the law.

Regarding this content, the Ministry of Construction said that the 2014 Housing Law and Decree No. 101/2015/ND-CP on construction and renovation of apartment buildings do not have clear and specific regulations on cases of demolition of apartment buildings, leading to different understandings of this issue among localities, so the list of apartment buildings subject to demolition and reconstruction in the period 2015 - 2020 does not meet the requirements.

For example, the concept of “dangerous apartment building, damaged apartment building, at risk of collapse” is not regulated in the construction law (the construction law uses the concept of class D apartment building). Therefore, when implementing, localities encounter difficulties in determining the list of apartment buildings subject to renovation and reconstruction - the Ministry of Construction noted.

Although Decree No. 69/2021/ND-CP on construction and renovation of apartment buildings replacing Decree No. 101/2016/ND-CP has provisions to resolve a number of existing issues under the Government's authority such as determining the responsibility for implementing quality inspection of apartment buildings, developing plans for renovation and reconstruction of apartment buildings, etc., there are still a number of issues and shortcomings stipulated in the 2014 Housing Law under the authority of the National Assembly that cannot be resolved in Decree No. 69/2021/ND-CP. At the same time, a number of provisions in Decree No. 69 also need to be "legalized" to enhance legal effectiveness and ensure feasibility during implementation - informed the Ministry of Construction.

According to Mr. Bui Tien Thanh, Head of Urban Development Department, Hanoi Department of Construction, the City People's Committee is rebuilding old apartment buildings according to Decree 69 and has issued a Project to renovate old apartment buildings with 6 implementation plans (divided into 6 phases). Phase 1 prioritizes implementation for 10 apartment buildings; including 4 old apartment buildings with level D dangerous houses and 6 apartment buildings with high feasibility.

After 2 years of implementation, the Department of Construction has approved the task of inspecting 1,022 old apartment buildings in the area. This is the basis for speeding up the renovation of old apartment buildings, which has been very slow in recent times. There are places that have completed the relocation of households and organizations out of level D dangerous buildings. This is a damaged building area that has had a policy for a long time, but some households still stay, despite the danger.

Based on this reality, the Ministry of Construction requires localities to allocate funds to conduct inspections and evaluate the quality of old apartment buildings in the area and make a list of apartment buildings and apartment complexes that must be demolished for renovation and reconstruction, and include them in the local implementation plan, as a basis for implementing projects to renovate and rebuild apartment buildings.

At the same time, localities need to urgently organize the establishment and approval of 1/500 scale planning for areas with apartment buildings that need to be renovated and rebuilt so that investors have a basis to participate in developing investment plans, compensation plans, and resettlement support when registering to be project investors - the Ministry of Construction emphasized.

However, Dr. Dao Ngoc Nghiem - Vice President of the Hanoi Urban Development Planning Association said that currently, when investors make plans, they all lead to an increase in the area's population; while the policy in the inner city is to reduce the population. In particular, to do this, the planning must be adjusted and so it will be very difficult.

The investor's goal is to build commercial centers combined with entertainment. If the government requires construction projects to create landscape architecture and be linked to zoning plans, but the above goal is not developed, the investor will not be interested in participating. Therefore, many old and degraded apartment projects are still "stuck in place" because there is no policy to create harmony between the parties - Mr. Nghiem commented.