Ms. Pham Ngoc Dung (born in 1959, living in house A2, Van Chuong apartment complex) confided that for the past 30 years, 3 generations of her family have lived in a house of only 12 square meters.
Although Hanoi City has a plan to renovate this old apartment building, all mechanisms, compensation coefficients, and resettlement are still unclear.
"Because the house is so small, almost no one in my family dares to buy much. Every night, the whole family spreads out mattresses to sleep together because the space is so small that there is no room for a bed.
My family had to expand the area to have more space for the kitchen, storage, bathroom, and toilet," said Ms. Dung.
Also living in Van Chuong area, Ms. Nguyen Thi Ha shared that because many generations live together in a cramped, damp apartment building, her family also hopes that the apartment building will soon be renovated and rebuilt to be more solid.
According to the plan, in the period of 2021 - 2025, the Hanoi People's Committee will renovate 10 old apartment buildings and collective housing areas with dangerous levels, including 4 buildings at risk of collapse, requiring urgent evacuation of residents such as Giang Vo, Thanh Cong, Ngoc Khanh, the Ministry of Justice collective housing area and 6 areas with feasibility for renovation: Kim Lien, Trung Tu, Khuong Thuong, Thanh Xuan Bac, Thanh Xuan Nam, Nghia Tan.
However, up to now, many projects are still facing a series of obstacles, only stopping at the investment approval policy, greatly affecting the lives of the people. In particular, over the past decades, Hanoi has only had 1.2% of the total of more than 1,579 old apartment buildings and collective houses renovated.
Speaking with Lao Dong, Architect Dao Ngoc Nghiem - Vice President of the Vietnam Urban Planning and Development Association - commented that the construction and renovation of old apartment buildings and collective houses has been an issue for Hanoi for about 30 years, but to date only about 1.2% has been implemented.
Notably, the current implementation sequence of renovation projects for old apartment buildings and collective houses is still quite complicated, with many adjustments and unclear specific requirements.
According to architect Dao Ngoc Nghiem, most people today really want to return to the old resettlement areas, except for a few cases who will want to find a new place to live.
Experts say that planning to renovate old collective houses and apartments needs to pay attention to compensation policies in case people do not return to their old residence or do not move to resettlement areas, and must promptly grasp people's wishes to have specific and appropriate policies.
