Struggling to find accommodation
During the peak season, the market for renting rooms and mini apartments often faces the phenomenon of "price increase - area decrease". Landlords and investors take advantage of increased demand to adjust rents to higher levels. This makes it difficult for renters to find accommodation that suits their needs and financial capabilities.
Looking for a motel in Thanh Xuan district, Tien Dat - a student at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Hanoi National University, "fell over" because of the sudden increase in motel prices. The male student said: "Most of the rented rooms I saw, the landlords quoted prices of 3 million VND or more even though the area was only about 20 square meters including sleeping, cooking and cleaning space. If the rent is reduced to only 2 million VND, the room condition will be even worse."
Besides students, another group that also has difficulty finding housing is low-income workers. Recording the lives of people in the area under Long Bien bridge (Hanoi), the reporter felt surprised. They have to live in a house built with temporary walls, but the accompanying services are still very expensive. Ms. Nguyen Thi Toan (Ba Vi, Hanoi) said: "My room is currently rented for 1,400,000 VND/month, electricity is 5,000 VND/unit, water is mainly drilled well water, if you use clean water you have to pay extra." money. If you rent a house built of bricks, the price will be higher."
Abandoned housing projects
As noted by a reporter from Lao Dong Newspaper, in Hanoi City, there are a series of student housing and resettlement housing projects that are almost "abandoned", causing waste.
Starting construction in 2009 on an area of 40,000 square meters, the Phap Van - Tu Hiep student housing complex is expected to provide 22,000 accommodations for students in the city. However, according to records, many blocks of buildings have remained abandoned for many years. Explaining the desolation, Nguyen Thi Ly - a student renting at Phap Van dormitory - said: "The housing area is quite far from the center so most of the tenants are students from neighboring schools."
The Sai Dong Urban Area resettlement housing project (Long Bien district) was built and completed sequentially from 2001 - 2006 with a total project investment of more than 1,292 billion VND. The project aims to resettle people when carrying out site clearance and expanding Sai Dong street. However, even though decades have passed, the three 6-storey buildings with more than 150 apartments are still "silent", many construction items have shown signs of deterioration.
It takes time to synchronize policies
To solve this situation, housing experts believe that the use of abandoned houses should be converted into social housing, creating conditions for access to housing for low-income workers. However, in reality, this plan still has many problems.
Talking to reporters from Lao Dong Newspaper, Mr. Nguyen Hoang Nam - General Director of GHome Company - said: "If you want to change the model from resettlement housing to social housing, you will have to intervene in many laws such as: Land Law, Housing Law, Investment Law and some other laws. This process is very complicated, it cannot just be done in a day or two."
Currently, there are tens of thousands of resettlement houses being wasted whether the investor is public or private. Many studies have shown that uninhabited houses deteriorate even faster than occupied houses. According to Mr. Nam, there should be clear research and planning for resettlement housing projects to avoid waste.
“In Vietnam, the urbanization rate is at 42-43% but there are tens of thousands of abandoned resettlement apartments. In the future, when the level of urbanization increases to 70-80% similar to developed countries, will we have abandoned cities? This is a huge waste. Therefore, the State should conduct truly scientific surveys on whether the proportion of resettled people actually stay in resettlement houses, and then come up with appropriate plans. If demand is zero, we can eliminate this model" - Mr. Nam said.
