As disputes between apartment residents and developers are cropping up in Ho Chi Minh City, the Ministry of Construction and the National Assembly’s Committee on Law will inspect the management and operation of several apartment buildings in the city at the end of March.

Carina Plaza buildings in Ho Chi Minh City

They will examine five buildings which have had issues raised over parking lots, maintenance fees, fire prevention and control, and land use rights certificates, among others.

The Ho Chi Minh City Real Estate Association (HoREA) has asked the Ministry of Construction to take coercive measures, forcing investors to hand over maintenance funds to apartment management boards which are set up to protect the rights of residents.

Actions should be put in place to ask the apartment operators to prove their financial capacity, while appropriate punishments must be meted out to any developers who have failed to end mortgage contracts with banks and ensure safety for their customers.

HoREA also recommended that the ministry issue standards on minimum floor plan area of an apartment, as well as design standards for shophouses, officetels, and serviced apartments that are within apartment buildings.

The ministry should also consider the building of a law on apartment buildings to meet development requirements for such a rapidly growing city.

According to the municipal Department of Construction, the city is now home to 1,367 apartment buildings, doubling the figure in 2009. Of which, there are 474 aged buildings, 15 of which were built before 1975 and now in severely degraded states.

Apartments account for 8.4 percent of housing in the city with the rate increasing dramatically due to the speed of urbanisation. In the last five years, apartments have made up 24.6 percent of newly constructed houses.–VNA