20 years of having a house but... no entrance
Located nestled among luxurious villas along the Saigon River, residential cluster No. 70 (An Khanh ward, Ho Chi Minh City) is facing the paradox of having houses but no roads to their houses. According to people's reflections, before 2002, this area had a stable walkway about 4m wide directly connected to the riverside road (now road 38).
However, since 2006, the urbanization process and the implementation of real estate projects have gradually erased this walkway. The peak was in 2020, when the investor, Thu Duc Housing Development Joint Stock Company, started building solid walls around it, the only entrance to the residential cluster was completely blocked.
The situation of "houses without walkways" has pushed people into misery for two decades. Every day, residents have to accept inconvenient travel by crossing the yard of neighbors' houses or betting on safety by weaving through narrow wall crevices that an adult can hardly bypass. Currently, many houses have seriously deteriorated because they cannot transport repair materials, the situation of being surrounded by project fences also adds worries about fire or emergency when all access roads for rescue forces are blocked.
Difficult to open roads because land donation has not been agreed upon
In the afternoon of July 30, 2026, at a press conference on the socio-economic situation, Mr. Bui Van Bien, representative of An Khanh Ward People's Committee, provided official information about this case.
According to Mr. Bien, the documents show that before 2002, people used the walkway from alley group 17. When infrastructure projects were implemented, the process of leveling the ground and the fact that some adjacent households erected fences caused the old walkway to disappear. Regarding the project in front (invested by Thu Duc Housing Development Joint Stock Company), Mr. Bien affirmed that this project was licensed for planning and construction on the land allocated from 2004 in accordance with regulations.
To solve difficulties for the people, An Khanh Ward People's Committee has proposed a solution to open a 4m wide road leading to road 38 on the basis of mobilizing residents to contribute land funds. However, this people's livelihood plan has not yet been implemented due to lack of common voice between the parties. Instead of sacrificing a part of the owned land area, people still maintain the view of demanding the right to return the walkway through the Thu Duc House project - this is the bottleneck that has caused the case to drag on for many years without a conclusion.
Waiting for the Court to decide the way for people
Due to not finding common ground between the parties, the case has now been transferred to the judicial agency. In 2024, households officially sued Thu Duc Housing Development Joint Stock Company to request a settlement of the right to access.
The People's Court of Ho Chi Minh City Region 2 is currently handling the case. However, according to information from functional agencies, the settlement process is still facing difficulties because the Court has sent 4 documents requesting the locality to coordinate in providing dossiers and documents on the origin of land, but the case has not had new progress.
After nearly 20 years of persistent complaints, the biggest aspiration of the residents here is still to have a proper way to stabilize their lives, instead of having to continue the unsettling scene of "piggybacking, temporary step" as it is now.
