To tighten management and handle violations in profiteering, buying and selling, or using social housing for the wrong purpose, the Ministry of Construction is proposing a new draft Decree on administrative sanctions in the construction sector.
Accordingly, a fine of 80 - 120 million VND will be applied to acts of the lessee or lessee not using the housing for the purpose of living for himself or his family members. The buyer or lessee of social housing for reselling the house is not in accordance with regulations; the advance payment from the social housing buyer is not in accordance with regulations.
The draft also stipulates other fines such as a fine of VND 120 - 160 million for the act of selling, leasing, leasing, or purchasing social housing for the wrong subjects or not complying with conditions.
As soon as the draft was published, many opinions from experts said that the maximum fine of 120 million VND for using or reselling social housing for the wrong purpose was low, not enough to deter.
Economic expert Dr. Nguyen Duy Phuong - Director of DG Capital Fund - said that the maximum fine of 120 million VND is not commensurate with market reality and the increasing profiteering engine.
He analyzed that the price level of social housing and commercial housing in big cities such as Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City is several billion VND apart per apartment. In the context of increasing demand for housing and the increasingly disappearance of the supply of affordable housing, the price level of social housing is being bought and resold on the market at quite high prices. From that, it can be seen that the fine of 120 million VND is insignificant compared to the profit that the profiteers earn. Even in the case of subleasing, violators will also enjoy a fairly large profit.
Many people will be willing to violate because if discovered, they pay the fine and the sentence is empty, and after a while, they will be allowed to register to continue buying another social housing apartment. Therefore, with this profiteering behavior, in addition to the heavy penalty, there should be additional sanctions for profiteers, said Dr. Phuong.
Lawyer Nguyen Dang Tu, Ho Chi Minh City Bar Association, also agreed when commenting that the maximum penalty of 120 million VND for the act of using, reselling or renting social housing is not commensurate with the market reality and the increasing profiteering engine, leading to the risk of policies being taken advantage of, distorting the humanistic nature of the social housing program. Management agencies need to study a fine that can be many times the difference in profit, and at the same time force the return of all illegal benefits or the revocation of violating apartments.
In particular, regarding the act of transferring social housing not in accordance with regulations, lawyer Nguyen Dang Tu expressed the view that it is necessary to reclaim the apartment to resell it to people with real needs and to the right State incentives. For cases of organized violations, mass speculation, or intentional profiteering from policies, the fine can be increased to 1 billion VND along with enforcement measures, asset recovery and ban on participating in social housing programs in the future.
