Hanoi’s Vice chairman Phi Thai Binh said the city suffers when many ministries and agencies ask for its land to build houses for staff.

New apartment blocks in Hanoi.

According to Binh, these agencies allege that their workers face difficulties in finding accommodation so they ask for the city to allocate land to build houses for employees.

These agencies cooperate with a real estate firm to develop construction projects because under the Real Estate Business Law, they are not allowed to set up housing development project management boards.

However, Hanoi’s authorities say the Housing Law only permits development of commercial houses, houses for the poor and state houses, not houses for government employees.

“We have allocated land for several projects but more and more central agencies ask for land so it is very difficult for us to answer them. We have to ask the Ministry of Construction for their opinion,” Binh said.

Meanwhile, deputy minister for construction Nguyen Tran Nam said that under the Land Law, government agencies can ask for land allocation and they have to pay land use fees to build houses for sale. However, it is illegal to sell houses for government employees.

“It is not good if government agencies build houses to sell at low prices for their employees because many employees will resell the houses to the market at high prices,” Nam wondered.

However, he said that the Construction Ministry is compiling an amended circular that permits agencies to sell 20 percent of the total number of houses for their employees, at market prices.

According to the Hanoi People’s Committee report, thousands of families in Hanoi are living in houses that don’t meet minimum standards. Around 5 percent of the people are in urgent need of accommodations.

The city has agreed in principle with three investors to build houses totaling 36,400sq.m for low-income earners in Ha Dong district and Long Bien district.

VietNamNet/VNE