Carina Plaza buildings in Ho Chi Minh City(Photo: VNA)
HCM City (VNA) – As disputes between apartment residents anddevelopers are cropping up in Ho Chi Minh City, the Ministry of Construction andthe National Assembly’s Committee on Law will inspect the management andoperation of several apartment buildings in the city at the end of March.
They will examine five buildings which have had issues raised over parking lots,maintenance fees, fire prevention and control, and land use rights certificates,among others.
The Ho Chi Minh City Real Estate Association (HoREA) has asked the Ministry ofConstruction to take coercive measures, forcing investors to hand overmaintenance funds to apartment management boards which are set up to protectthe rights of residents.
Actions should be put in place to ask the apartment operators to prove theirfinancial capacity, while appropriate punishments must be meted out to anydevelopers who have failed to end mortgage contracts with banks and ensuresafety for their customers.
HoREA also recommended that the ministry issue standards on minimum floor plan areaof an apartment, as well as design standards for shophouses, officetels, andserviced apartments that are within apartment buildings.
The ministry should also consider the building of a law on apartment buildingsto meet development requirements for such a rapidly growing city.
According to the municipal Department of Construction, the city is now home to1,367 apartment buildings, doubling the figure in 2009. Of which, there are 474aged buildings, 15 of which were built before 1975 and now in severely degradedstates.
Apartments account for 8.4 percent of housing in the city with the rate increasingdramatically due to the speed of urbanisation. In the last five years,apartments have made up 24.6 percent of newly constructed houses.–VNA
VNA
