Buyers have their rights suspended
According to the report of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Construction, the city is currently facing a series of commercial housing projects that have been approved in principle since 2003 - 2005, but have not been able to issue books to home buyers due to legal problems related to resettlement obligations.
For example, the case of Duong Hong Housing Construction and Trading Joint Stock Company, the investor of the 9B4 - 9B8 residential project in Binh Hung commune, Binh Chanh district before. The project was allocated land by the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee in 2004, with a total of 254 apartments, of which 25 apartments are subject to 10% regulation of land fund. To date, 229 apartments have been granted pink books, the remaining 25 apartments are still "suspended" even though the project has completed 100% of the technical infrastructure.
A similar situation occurred with the Riva Park project (formerly District 4) invested by Vietcomreal. Although the locality confirmed that there is no need to buy back 150 resettlement apartments and the investor has sold them to the people, to date, these apartments have not been granted a certificate due to the issue of Directive 7. In addition, hundreds of apartments in projects such as Tien Hung housing area (formerly Ehome3, Binh Tan district) and Phuong Viet apartment building (formerly District 8) have fulfilled their financial obligations and met legal requirements, but to date, residents have not been granted certificates.
It is known that these projects are part of the investment program to build 30,000 resettlement apartments according to Directive 24 2004, when the city encourages construction enterprises to complete the housing fund in the project and resell it to the city according to the construction cost plus standard profit according to regulations.
The projects allocated land in the above period all show the content of binding the investor's responsibility for reselling the apartments in the project to the city to serve the resettlement goal.
However, after completion, many localities where the project is located confirmed that there is no longer a need to buy this housing fund, leading to the city agreeing not to buy back and assigning related units to review arising financial obligations.
Removing difficulties for people
According to Decree 99/2015, to convert project goals from resettlement to commercial housing, the Ministry of Construction must be consulted. By June 2023, the Government abolished this procedure and assigned the handling authority to the provincial People's Committee.
However, the Housing Law 2024 and Decree 95/2024 stipulate that the purchase of commercial housing as a resettlement fund is no longer a binding administrative responsibility from the beginning of the project, but is implemented according to the contract mechanism between the State and the investor. At the same time, the new regulation does not mention transitional provisions, so the authority to resolve previously arising obligations still belongs to the City People's Committee.
In addition, there is a reason stemming from Directive 07/200 of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee. According to this Directive, the city requires investors to regulate 10% of land fund or 20% of housing fund for resettlement. After that, the city issued Official Letter 7623 allowing investors to sell housing funds if the locality has no need to buy. In fact, investors have sold all products in the project, including houses and land subject to resettlement services.
However, from 2005 to present, home buyers in the area belonging to the resettlement fund have still had their pink books "suspended", unable to fully exercise their rights as real estate owners. Currently, the city has not yet issued instructions on how to solve this problem, causing thousands of customers to suffer from financial disadvantages over the past 20 years.
To resolve the rights of home buyers in this case, the Working Group on resolving issues related to the issuance of certificates of land use rights and ownership of assets attached to land to organizations and individuals in commercial housing development projects in the city (Working Group 5013) has just proposed to the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee to consider the direction of resolving the issue of continuing to issue certificates of land use rights and house ownership rights (pink books) for commercial apartments in the resettlement housing fund that are not bought by the city, in order to remove difficulties for people.
Based on the direction of the Chairman of the City People's Committee, Working Group 5013 has requested the Department of Agriculture and Environment to coordinate with relevant agencies to review the approved land price plan, determine the level of impact of not buying back the housing fund to propose additional financial obligations (if any).
At the same time, it is proposed that the Department of Construction review the provisions of the law on housing and propose the City People's Committee to propose a general approach to handle commercial housing projects in this group of difficulties.
In addition, the Working Group recommended that the Ho Chi Minh City Land Registration Office continue to issue books to commercial apartments that are not subject to resettlement obligations under the above projects. For the group of projects under Directive 07, the city continues to issue books to apartments that are no longer subject to financial obligations.
