Reader T.T. T in Ho Chi Minh City reflected: "On December 22, 2025, the People's Committee of Ho Chi Minh City issued Decision No. 29/2025/QD-UBND on issuing term construction permits for projects entangled in planning in the city.
However, this decision does not clearly state whether the houses entangled in road/alley expansion planning (road and alley boundary planning) are in this case or not?
This causes confusion for the People's Committees of wards/communes in licensing people.
For example, in my case. My house was built in 1967, with brick walls and corrugated iron roof.
Currently, the house has seriously deteriorated: The walls of the house are tilted, cracked everywhere, and at risk of collapsing. But when I contacted the Tam Binh Ward People's Committee to apply for a construction permit, I was told that the house is entangled in the To Ngoc Van road expansion plan, and the area after deducting the road boundary of my house is not enough for new construction.
The Ward People's Committee only agreed to allow me to repair items such as replacing corrugated iron and paving the floor. Because my house was built a long time ago and many places are rotten, it is difficult to repair, if I dismantle it for repair, the risk of collapse is very high.
The road boundary planning of To Ngoc Van street has been implemented since 1995, although the State has not had a plan to expand To Ngoc Van street, functional agencies also refused to grant me a term construction permit.
I know that in Ho Chi Minh City there are many roads and alleys that do not have conditions to expand, so the number of houses belonging to road boundaries and alleys is quite large. If we do not issue a term construction permit, it will affect the rights and lives of many of our households. I really hope that functional agencies will provide specific guidance for us in applying for a construction permit to repair and build houses in the above cases.
After research, the Department of Economics - Construction Investment Management (Ministry of Construction) has the following opinions:
- According to the provisions of point a, clause 1, Article 94 of the 2014 Construction Law (amended and supplemented according to the provisions of point a, clause 34, Article 1 of Law No. 62/2020/QH14), general conditions for issuing construction permits:
“a) Belonging to areas with construction sub-area planning, functional area construction sub-area planning, functional area detailed construction planning that have been approved and announced by competent state agencies but have not been implemented and have not had land recovery decisions from competent state agencies; b) Suitable to the scale of works prescribed by the Provincial People's Committee for each area and the duration of existence of works according to the plan to implement construction sub-area planning, functional area construction sub-area planning or detailed planning, functional area detailed construction planning that has been approved by competent state agencies”;
- At the same time, according to the provisions of Clause 3, Article 94 and Point b, Clause 1, Article 93 of this Law, construction works licensed for a term must meet the conditions of "ensuring safety for works and adjacent works and requirements for environmental protection and fire and explosion prevention".
Therefore, in case the citizen's house meets the above regulations, it falls under the case of being granted a term construction permit (the competent state agency has no right to refuse to issue it). In case it is necessary to clarify further, the citizen should study the legal regulations and instructions mentioned above, and contact the competent construction permit issuing agency in the locality for guidance.
