Sharing his views with VTC News , Mr. Nguyen Van Dinh, a legal expert in the field of real estate investment and business, said that mini apartments are very hot in big cities because of their moderate area, affordable prices for young families, workers, and convenient locations for living, working, studying... But that is also a big "problem".
The fire at the mini apartment building in Khuong Ha (Thanh Xuan district, Hanoi) that occurred on the night of September 12 was terrible because in a small alley where cars cannot enter, a mini apartment building was built up to 10 floors high, with a floor area of only 200 m2, a total floor area of 2,000 m2, with up to 45 households with about 150 people living.
" People's lives are very fragile because because it is not an investment project, mini apartments are not approved, accepted, or regularly inspected for safety and fire prevention, " Mr. Dinh emphasized.
However, the draft Law on Housing (amended) proposes to "legalize" this type under the name of "multi-storey multi-household housing of households and individuals", that is, if a household or individual has a plot of land of several hundred square meters, they can build mini apartments for sale without having to establish a business, without having to establish an investment project to carry out investment procedures according to the Investment Law, Housing Law, and Real Estate Business Law.
Besides the conveniences they bring, mini apartments also pose many unpredictable dangers. (Illustration: Cong Hieu).
This means that there is no need for the following procedures: approval of investment policy, land allocation/lease, land valuation and implementation of financial obligations on land, appraisal of feasibility study reports/basic designs, fire prevention and fighting approval, issuance of construction permits, fire prevention and fighting acceptance, acceptance of works eligible for exploitation and operation...
Mr. Dinh emphasized that the danger lies in the fact that Article 57 of the latest draft revised Housing Law (submitted to the Conference of Specialized Delegates at the end of August 2023) allows homeowners to choose to issue separate "pink books" for each apartment. If approved, the mini-apartment type will be "legalized" and no different from a normal apartment. This is also reflected in the current Housing Law (Article 46) and previously Decree 71/2010.
Accordingly, a young family with 700-800 million VND can also buy a mini apartment of 30m2 and be granted a "pink book" exactly like buying an apartment in the project.
" If this policy is passed, it will certainly make mini apartments "even hotter", people will rush to buy mini apartments, creating a wave of hunting for adjacent plots of land to merge, build mini apartments for sale everywhere instead of encouraging housing development according to projects, ensuring synchronous infrastructure connections.
Not only the safety and fire prevention issues, but also the solution of technical infrastructure, social infrastructure (schools, healthcare, administration, services...) for households buying mini apartments will pile up more burden for the authorities of urban areas of Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang... if mini apartments are "legalized" , Mr. Dinh warned.
Therefore, Mr. Dinh proposed: Do not "legalize" mini apartments, on the contrary, there should be measures to strictly control this type. In particular, do not recognize the purchase and sale of mini apartments, and resolutely do not issue separate "pink books" for each mini apartment to avoid the outbreak of this type, avoid the risk of insecurity and overloading the urban infrastructure system.
" If any household or individual has the right to use residential land and wants to build an apartment building, they must establish a business/cooperative and prepare an investment project to carry out investment procedures according to the Investment Law, Housing Law, and Real Estate Business Law ," Mr. Dinh commented.
A serious fire just broke out in a mini apartment building in Khuong Ha.
Sharing the same view, Mr. Le Hoang Chau - Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City Real Estate Association (HoREA) also said that it is necessary to amend the 2014 Housing Law in the direction of eliminating legal loopholes to legalize mini apartments.
Specifically, according to Mr. Chau, the provisions of Clause 2, Article 46 of the 2014 Housing Law clearly state: Households and individuals in urban areas must construct and renovate houses in accordance with the provisions of the law on construction and are responsible for the quality of the houses.
In case of being permitted to build a house with 2 floors or more, each floor is designed and built with 2 or more apartments in a closed style, meeting the minimum floor area standards for each apartment according to construction standards and regulations, and having a part of the area under private ownership, a part of the area under common ownership of the apartment building according to the provisions of this law, the State shall recognize the ownership of each apartment in that house.
According to Mr. Chau, this regulation has led to the situation of "cutting in" and rampant construction of mini apartments in large cities. From there, it disrupts urban development planning. At the same time, it causes loss of aesthetics and does not ensure fire safety as well as lack of utilities and services for residents. Therefore, the Association proposes to amend Clause 2, Article 46 of the 2014 Housing Law in the direction of completely eliminating the issuance of red books for mini apartments, only allowing the business of renting houses.
In fact, in recent times, many investors have applied for permits to build regular houses, then circumvented the law and changed the original design to build mini apartments for business purposes. The widespread construction of mini apartments in large cities disrupts urban development planning, causes loss of aesthetics, and even poses risks to buyers.
This has also been pointed out by the Ministry of Construction: In some localities, there has been a situation of taking advantage of the lax management of functional agencies, households and individuals have arbitrarily built individual houses with many floors and many apartments without complying with legal regulations such as: construction without permission, construction without permission, construction against planning, encroachment on space, dividing apartments, arbitrarily adding floors... and then freely buying, selling and transferring.
The Ministry of Construction also issued a warning: If management is not tightened, it will lead to many consequences such as violations of fire prevention and fighting regulations, potential high risk of fire and explosion in the residential community; overloading of technical infrastructure and social infrastructure systems; failure to issue ownership certificates to apartment buyers due to violations of design and construction density, leading to disputes and lawsuits between buyers and sellers.
Chau Anh
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