Where do low-income workers go when boarding houses and mini apartments are banned?
In less than a year, two terrible fires, leaving serious consequences for both people and property, occurred in Hanoi.
Specifically, in September 2023, a fire at a mini apartment building on Khuong Ha Street, Thanh Xuan District, killed 56 people and injured dozens of others. This is considered the most horrific fire to occur in Hanoi.
Most recently, in the early morning of May 24, 2024, a house fire on Trung Kinh Street (Trung Hoa Ward, Cau Giay District, Hanoi) killed 14 people.
The fire at a mini apartment building on Khuong Ha Street, Thanh Xuan District, killed 56 people. (Photo: ST)
The fires in Khuong Ha and Trung Kinh are just two of thousands of fires and explosions that occur every year. However, these two fires caused huge casualties, shocked public opinion and left many people with haunting memories.
The common point of these two fires is that they are commercial housing projects with many people living in a small space, but lack fire safety. In addition, the houses are located in deep alleys, making fire prevention and fighting very difficult, leading to very serious consequences.
In the face of the two heartbreaking incidents mentioned above, some opinions suggest that housing models that do not ensure fire prevention and fighting should be "banned".
Responding to the press yesterday (May 24), right after the house fire in Trung Kinh, a National Assembly delegate spoke up: “The regulations on housing combined with production and business must have a plan for fire prevention and fire prevention solutions, and this must be added to the regulations. If the case of combining with production and business is in the condition that the house is also combined with a rental room, I think we should prohibit that. We cannot create such high risks.”
A house fire on Trung Kinh Street, Trung Hoa Ward, Cau Giay District, Hanoi has left 14 people dead. (Photo: QH)
This person also said: The law should prohibit doing business in areas with a large number of people (for example, 10 people or more) or in cases where fire prevention and fire fighting systems are not guaranteed.
Previously, right after the fire in Khuong Ha, Thanh Xuan occurred, some opinions also spoke up to suggest "banning" mini apartment products.
In case Vietnam really "bans" these types of housing, where will people live, especially low-income workers?
In fact, housing prices in big cities like Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City are very high and increase steadily every month and every quarter.
According to Savills Vietnam, the primary selling price of apartments in Hanoi has increased for 19 consecutive quarters. Currently, the average price of primary apartments is recorded at 59 million VND/m2.
Apartment prices are high, but real estate prices are even higher. Even the prices of land in alleys are not cheap. According to a report by One Housing, the price of land in alleys reached a record of 170 million VND/m2 for the central area and about 100 million VND/m2 for the outside of the center.
For street-front houses in Hanoi, the price ranges from 400 million VND to a billion VND per square meter, even in the central area, the price is up to 1.2 - 1.3 billion VND/m2. With such sky-high prices, people can only buy a "dream" street-front house.
Meanwhile, according to the 2022 population living standards survey, the average income per capita nationwide in 2022 reached about 4.6 million VND/month. For people working in Hanoi, the average income in 2022 reached 6.4 million VND/month; and in Ho Chi Minh City, it was 6.3 million VND/month.
Thus, Hanoians have to work hard for decades, even hundreds of years, to be able to buy a house in the capital. Therefore, despite knowing that danger is always lurking, rental houses, mini apartments... are the mandatory choice for people who do not have a permanent home.
Social housing, social housing for rent: Many commitments, little implementation
It must be affirmed that it is very difficult to ban all types of boarding houses, even impossible. However, it is possible to limit risks. Social housing, social housing for rent is the solution.
In recent years, the Government and central agencies have promoted policies and introduced housing programs to encourage the development of social housing.
Following the Prime Minister's direction, localities are also promoting the development of social housing projects and social housing for rent, Hanoi is no exception.
At the Conference on implementing the Project to invest in building at least 1 million social housing apartments for low-income people and industrial park workers in the period of 2021-2030, which took place at the end of February 2024, the leader of the Hanoi People's Committee said: According to the Strategy and Housing Development Program to 2030, Hanoi determined that by 2025, it must complete 1.25 million m2 of social housing; by 2030, about 2.5 million m2 of social housing is needed.
Hanoi is lacking social housing and social housing for rent. (Photo: ST)
Hanoi has proactively allocated land for social housing development with a total area of about 400 hectares.
“By 2023, Hanoi has arranged 5 concentrated social housing areas. By 2025, Hanoi will complete more than 18,000 apartments, fulfilling the requirements of the Project,” a representative of the Hanoi People's Committee revealed.
However, the reality shows that social housing projects are slow to start construction for many reasons. Up to now, Hanoi has 6 social housing projects behind schedule. Some projects were expected to hand over houses in 2020, but after 4 years, they are still empty lots.
In an event held in February 2024, Mr. Nguyen Van Sinh, Deputy Minister of Construction, "named" a number of key localities that, despite having a huge demand for social housing, have limited investment. Typically, Hanoi (3 projects - 1,700 units, meeting 9%), Ho Chi Minh City (7 projects - 4,996 units, meeting 19%), Da Nang (5 projects - 2,750 units, meeting 43%)...
Some localities have not even had any projects started in the period from 2021 to present such as: Ha Giang, Cao Bang, Vinh Phuc, Ninh Binh, Nam Dinh, Quang Ngai, Quang Binh, Long An, Vinh Long, Soc Trang...
The Deputy Minister of Construction also pointed out that in some localities, many projects have been approved for investment in the recent period, but local authorities have not paid attention to and created favorable conditions in selecting project investors for construction.
Some social housing projects have started but have not been implemented by enterprises or are behind schedule. Some projects have met the conditions for preferential loans, but the provincial People's Committee has not yet reviewed them to announce the list of projects eligible for preferential loans.
Mr. Nguyen Van Dinh, Vice President of the Vietnam Real Estate Association, informed that many businesses have grasped the market demand for the social housing segment, but when they started implementing it, they encountered many difficulties.
“It is stuck from planning; land fund; procedures, implementation process to getting stuck in the investor process and then getting stuck in output, choosing objects. The conditions are stuck but the profit is controlled, the selling price has a standard so they recalculate and find it unattractive, leading to why there are not many social housing projects and businesses cannot absorb the support capital from the State,” said Mr. Dinh.
Boarding houses and apartments are unsafe, but social housing with fire prevention and fighting facilities is seriously lacking. So where can people, especially low-income workers, live to be safe? This is still a difficult problem without an answer.
Source: https://www.congluan.vn/cam-nha-tro-cam-chung-cu-mini-nguoi-lao-dong-thu-nhap-thap-o-dau-post296828.html
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