The city’s Department of Construction has proposed requiring an average floor area of 20sq.m per person for rentals to people who want to register for permanent residence status. 

An apartment building in HCM City.

In the future, the figure is expected to rise to match the city’s socio-economic conditions.

The department based the figure on similar regulations in Hà Nội, Cần Thơ and Đà Nẵng.

According to the Department of Construction, the proposed area is four times higher than the current area per person of 5sq.m for people with permanent residence status.

The new regulation will be submitted to the city People’s Council in mid-March if the city People’s Committee approves.

By 2020, the city aims to have an average floor area per person of 19.8sq.m.

The city has faced an increasing population, mostly due to migrants, which has raised the number of registrations for permanent residence status.

The Tuổi trẻ (Youth) newspaper cited HCM City Police’s figures which showed that the city has more than 43,000 people living in one district who have permanent residence status at a house that they rent in another district. 

Nearly 45,000 people from other provinces have registered for permanent residence status at houses in HCM City which they rent or have “borrowed” from others to live.

Online newspaper Vietnamnet quoted the city People’s Committee as saying that people from other provinces moving to the city for work have created pressure on infrastructure.

The population increase has led to traffic jams and overcrowding at hospitals and schools, affecting the quality of life of residents.

More new apartment building projects have been allowed in other areas to relieve population density in the city centre. — VNS