Out-of-town projects given priority to turn low-cost homes

Speaking at a meeting with related authorities and property developers on Monday, Nguyen Huu Tin, vice chairman of the city, said that the housing conversion and adjustment policy aimed to remove troubles facing local companies on condition that such transformation must be subject to the city’s zoning plans. He said that the process of the housing transformation in the city was too slow.

The problem arises when apartment projects awaiting approval for division of condos into smaller units or conversion into low-cost homes have to ensure requirements of the current zoning plans or related criteria. That is because the population of the projects will certainly be increased in sync with these adjustments, thus putting higher pressure on the social and traffic infrastructure.

The municipal Department of Construction at the meeting informed that division of commercial apartments into smaller condos should be done in line with safety and minimum space and usage area criteria. Each condo after being split up must be equivalent to or bigger than a standard commercial flat measuring at least 45 square meters, according to the department.

Meanwhile, commercial housing schemes seeking approval on conversion into budget homes will have their construction density and land usage coefficient raised besides enjoying incentives. Those projects with land usage fees already paid will have the fees either refunded or deducted into financial obligations of the project owners.

Representatives of many districts noted that the approval couldn’t be carried out with multiple projects at the same time and that each scheme should be taken into consideration to avoid exerting infrastructure pressure on the scheme.

Nguyen Thi Nhu Loan, general director of Quoc Cuong Gia Lai Joint Stock Company, proposed State management authorities consider every application in a flexible way to give the nod to involved applicants soon. Loan complained that her company over the past few months had asked for permission to split up flats of a commercial housing project in the outlying district of Binh Chanh from 300 units into 490 units but so far has not received any response from relevant authorities.