Proposal to convert abandoned resettlement houses into social housing: What do experts say?

While housing supply is extremely scarce, causing prices to continuously increase, tens of thousands of resettlement apartments are abandoned.

Faced with this situation, the Vietnam Association of Realtors (VARS) recommends that state management agencies quickly have solutions to "awaken" this type to avoid wasting land resources, improve supply, improve people's quality of life and develop sustainable urban areas.

One of the solutions proposed by VARS is that in addition to the auction housing fund, the State can study combining resettlement housing and social housing into the same segment.

Discussing this idea, Mr. Nguyen Hoang, Director of Market Research Department of DKRA Vietnam Company, said that converting resettlement housing to social housing is not too difficult because the Government is focusing on developing social housing.

In addition, it needs to be done quickly because the longer it takes, the more the resettlement apartments will deteriorate and lose value. At that time, bidding or selling will also be difficult.

On the other hand, the current compensation mechanism is market-based, most people receive money to resettle themselves, only a very small number receive houses, when the compensation is not enough to take care of their own housing. Therefore, converting resettlement houses to other purposes is easier to implement.

Many opinions say that it is necessary to quickly convert abandoned resettlement houses into social housing. (Illustration photo)

Sharing the same view, Mr. Le Hoang Chau - Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City Real Estate Association (HoREA) also said that converting the function of resettlement housing areas into social housing is necessary to avoid waste. However, there needs to be a comprehensive renovation and upgrading plan to ensure housing standards.

HoREA also proposed that the State assign housing management agencies to review beneficiaries of this type of social housing with converted functions, as well as promptly implement preferential credit policies for social housing buyers.

The leader of a real estate company in Hanoi also said that it is unreasonable for resettlement houses to be abandoned in a context where people's demand for housing is high and supply is scarce.

Not only is it a waste of land resources, the state budget also has to spend billions of dong each year on maintenance, upkeep, and interest payments.

" Converting to social housing not only creates more supply of low-cost housing for people, but also helps the State collect money to invest in many other things ," the business leader stated his opinion.

Tens of thousands of resettlement apartments abandoned

According to VARS, the phenomenon of abandoned resettlement apartments appears frequently in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang... Large-scale buildings, with investments of thousands of billions of VND, are abandoned or used ineffectively, causing the entire infrastructure and items to seriously deteriorate.

In Hanoi, about 4,000 houses are abandoned. Many resettlement projects with residents living there and commercial service areas have been left empty for many years, with no units renting or using them commercially.

Similarly, in Ho Chi Minh City, there are also more than 14,000 vacant resettlement apartments, most concentrated in Binh Khanh resettlement area (District 2) with more than 12,000 apartments and in Vinh Loc B resettlement area (Binh Chanh district) with more than 2,000 apartments...

Explaining this situation, Mr. Nguyen Van Dinh, Chairman of VARS analyzed: because many resettlement areas are built in areas far from the center, lacking public utilities and services. This reduces the attractiveness and makes it difficult for people to move and live.

Some resettlement projects have problems with construction quality such as poor quality materials, unreasonable design and substandard construction. These problems make people reluctant to move in.

Besides, many resettlement areas often lack basic infrastructure such as schools, hospitals, markets and transportation systems... reducing the quality of life and convenience for residents.

In addition, the compensation level is not satisfactory and the resettlement policy under the current Land Law is not reasonable, causing many people to not want to move to a new place or not be able to live in resettlement areas because the total compensation amount is not enough to buy the assigned resettlement quota.

Recently, Deputy Minister of Construction Nguyen Van Sinh signed a document to send to the People's Committees of centrally-run provinces and cities, requesting localities to synthesize projects and the number of resettlement houses that are no longer needed for resettlement arrangements and have the need to convert this housing fund to social housing, commercial housing or other purposes.

Chau Anh

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