In 2017, apartment building 440 Tran Hung Dao was classified as D - the highest level of danger in the classification of housing quality.
By February 2023, the People's Committee of District 5 will urgently relocate 20 households from the old housing area to ensure safety and arrange temporary accommodation at apartment building 961 Hau Giang (District 6)
The demolition of the apartment building was then carried out, however, up to now, the households have not received any official compensation, support or resettlement plan.
The main reason is that the old land has an area of only over 241 m2, of which the part suitable for construction planning is only about 170 m2 - too small to implement a new housing project. The land has no renovation project, no investor, and no legal basis to implement the next steps.
At the end of April 2025, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Construction proposed that the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee approve the auction plan for land use rights in this area, and assigned District 5 to organize the preparation and approval of compensation plans according to the Housing Law 2023 and Decree 98/2024 of the Government.
However, according to current regulations, the case of apartment building 440 Tran Hung Dao cannot apply the above option because there is no investor and is not in the group of projects to renovate and rebuild apartment buildings.
Ms. Truong Minh Kieu - Chairman of District 5 People's Committee - said that the district has proposed that the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee soon arrange a budget to pay compensation, support and resettlement for affected households, and at the same time proposed assigning the Department of Construction to guide the district to develop an implementation plan in accordance with current legal regulations.
Mr. Phan Van Tuan - Deputy Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Construction - said that the land of 440 Tran Hung Dao apartment building is small and does not comply with the current planning, making the implementation of the new project "difficult to calculate".
Faced with this situation, the Department of Finance has proposed that the People's Committee of District 5 establish a public investment policy for the 440 Tran Hung Dao land plot - a direction that can simultaneously solve two issues: compensation for residents and issuance of ownership certificates to temporarily residing households.
District 5 currently has 213 old apartment buildings built before 1975 and 7 more apartment buildings built from 1974 to 1994. Of which, 143 apartments are assessed as level B, 52 apartments are level C - posing many potential risks to structural safety.
From 2016 to 2020, District 5 spent 64.5 billion VND from the budget to repair 90 apartment buildings. In the period from 2023 to present, 35 apartment buildings have been renovated with a socialized capital of nearly 4 billion VND.
At the meeting with the People's Committee of District 5 on June 6, Chairman of the People's Committee of Ho Chi Minh City Nguyen Van Duoc said that the current working methods of District 5 are still broken, divided into clusters and projects, causing difficulties in attracting investors and prolonging progress.
Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Nguyen Van Duoc requested District 5 to proactively find a capable investor to renovate old apartments throughout the area in a synchronous direction with a long-term strategy. At the same time, relevant departments are assigned the task of creating maximum legal and procedural conditions to support District 5 in implementation.
