Saigon plans to take down 61 deteriorating apartment buildings and relocate their 7,200 households to resettlement areas. However, it's easier said than done.
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Under the plan, three old apartment buildings, representing 10,000sqm, will be refurbished while the reminder will be demolished and their inhabitants moved to new structures with around 9,870 apartments, according to Vietnam News.
For the renovations, the city will offer investor incentives, such as waiver of corporate and value-added taxes for five years and land-use and lease fees.
Based on previous experience, it may take a while before the buildings meet their ultimate fate as such processes are often bogged down by compensation negotiations.
“Policies to encourage residents to evacuate are not effective and it usually takes many years to evacuate crumbling apartment buildings. Authorities face severe resistance while attempting to move out residents who are generally dissatisfied with the compensation,” wrote the news website.
Some buildings, such as District 1’s 750 unit Co Giang apartments that were built in 1964, are not longer structurally sound and are “in danger of collapsing at any time.”
The Co Giang apartments that will soon be demolished. Photo via VC media.
For four years, the city’s People's Committee has pushed District 1 authorities to relocate residents who have stood firm, claiming that the compensation offered is inadequate and that the new accommodations are too far from the city center. Many are poor and rely on their current neighborhoods for their economic livelihoods.
According to the Department of Construction, since 2010, the city has only been able to demolish 10 old apartment buildings.
The city is home to more than 1,200 such buildings, 570 of which predate 1975 and are in poor condition. Of these, the notorious 727 Tran Hung Dao, originally built to house American military personnel, looks like it will be one of the first to go.
