Investors make mistakes, home buyers suffer the consequences
It has been more than 10 years since buying an apartment. Every time the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee holds a meeting to resolve problems or issues a plan to issue pink books for apartment projects in the city, residents living at Vien Ngoc Phuong Nam Apartment (address: 125/20 Au Duong Lan, Ward 2, District 8, Ho Chi Minh City) are secretly happy. However, time and time again, the issue of issuing house ownership certificates (pink books) to residents here has not been resolved.
Residents here said that with 192 apartments, this is home to more than 1,000 residents. The apartment building was built by the investor, An Dien Construction Investment Joint Stock Company. It has been more than 10 years but the apartment building has not yet been granted a certificate or established a management board.
According to a report from the People's Committee of District 8, in 2016, Vien Ngoc Phuong Nam apartment building handed over houses to residents and up to now, the construction work has not been accepted. The reason is that the project was approved by the Department of Construction in Decision No. 16/QD-SXD-PTN dated January 22, 2009, with a scale of 18 floors, 2 basements, 1 mezzanine on the ground floor, and 1 mezzanine on the 18th floor. However, during the construction of the building, the investor still intentionally built illegally on floors 19 and 20, causing the project to not be accepted. However, the investor continued to hand over houses to organizations and individuals, and residents moved in illegally, and until now, there has been no final solution from the government and relevant agencies.
Similarly, in Thu Duc City, Dat Gia apartment complex with about 970 apartments was handed over to residents many years ago, but until now, home buyers have not been granted pink books. The reason is that the project was built against the design approved by competent authorities; against the detailed construction planning at a scale of 1/500, in which the investor increased the construction floor area at locations in blocks A1 and A3.
While the project was still in the process of completion, the authorities discovered that the investor, Dat Gia Real Estate Consulting and Trading Company Limited, had built an additional 72.9 m2 on the mezzanine floor; from the 2nd to the 20th floor, the area was increased by 1,375.6 m2. Meanwhile, in October 2016, the Department of Construction Inspectorate discovered the violation, but then did not have a decisive solution to handle it.
Speed up processing for people
The above are just typical examples of cases where pink books for apartments in Ho Chi Minh City cannot be issued due to violations by investors.
A report from the Department of Natural Resources and Environment shows that Ho Chi Minh City has more than 81,000 houses in 335 projects that meet the conditions but have not been able to complete the issuance of land use rights certificates and property ownership certificates attached to land (pink books) due to arising problems.
The Department of Natural Resources and Environment also pointed out 6 current problem groups. Group 1 (projects without legal problems and waiting for completion of financial obligations) includes 8,159 apartments, currently 100% of apartments in this group have completed the issuance of pink books.
Group 2 (projects without legal problems but have not submitted documents) with more than 30,000 apartments, has currently resolved to issue certificates for 16,378 apartments that have submitted complete documents.
Group 3 (new real estate project group officetel, shophouse) includes 8,918 apartments in 29 projects, the city has dismantled 9 projects with 7,174 apartments, reaching a rate of 80%.
Group 4 (projects needing additional financial obligations) with 19,958 apartments in 39 projects, has now been dismantled for 14 projects, equivalent to 6,130 apartments.
Group 5 (other problems) with 3,125 houses in 6 projects, has been resolved for 3 projects, corresponding to 1,715 houses and group 6 (inspection and investigation group) with 8,235 apartments in 18 projects, has been resolved for 7 projects, corresponding to 3,565 houses.
The Department of Natural Resources and Environment also said that as of December 2024, Ho Chi Minh City had completed removing legal obstacles and issuing pink books for about 43,100 out of the total 81,000 apartments mentioned above. It is expected that in 2025, Ho Chi Minh City will complete removing difficulties and issuing pink books for the remaining 38,000 apartments.
