Slow approval hinders conversion of commercial homes

A housing project that is awaiting approval for conversion into a low-cost home development in HCMC’s Binh Tan District - Photo: Dinh Dung

At the seminar organized by the HCMC Real Estate Association (Horea), most participating companies expressed disappointment with the slow process of considering their proposals for splitting up condos and changing commercial apartments into budget ones.

In addition to the difficulties caused for companies concerned, homebuyers have felt the pinch of the slow process as they have been unable to find small apartment units with affordable prices before they could borrow from the VND30 trillion home credit package funded by the Government.

Numerous enterprises in HCMC are seeking permission to split up their apartments, including Dat Lanh Real Estate Company with Thai An project in District 12, An Phu Joint Stock Company with An Phu scheme in District 6 and Quoc Cuong Gia Lai Joint Stock Company with a project in Binh Chanh. Meanwhile, multiple housing developers in the city have yet to get a nod to change their commercial housing projects into low-cost ones, Horea said.

The problem is that even these companies have had no idea about why their applications are not yet to be approved, Horea noted. These applications should be taken into consideration as soon as possible because many are struggling with business difficulties, the association insisted.

Speaking at the seminar, Do Thi Loan, vice chairwoman of Horea, described the Government’s home credit program as a stalled property development project as money is ready for lending but there are no borrowers.

Only three commercial housing projects in the city have been allowed to convert into low-cost home schemes. They are Thu Thiem Investment Joint Stock Company’s Thao Dien resettlement project in District 2, Hoang Quan’s CC1 apartment scheme in Binh Chanh and Hoang Hiep’s apartment scheme in Tan Binh.