Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Đỗ Đức Duy addresses the deputies’ concerns at the National Assembly meeting on Thursday. — VNA/VNS Photo Minh Đức

HÀ NỘI — The National Assembly (NA) on Thursday morning discussed a draft resolution which could allow additional land to be given over to build small groups of houses.

The draft resolution is to pilot commercial housing projects using existing or transferring land use rights.

Expressing support for the document, NA Deputy Trịnh Xuân An from southern Đồng Nai Province said that the draft has sufficient political, legal and practical grounds as outlined in the proposal and appraisal report.

The NA adopting this resolution will serve as a foundation to use and increase land resources for socio-economic development, he said.

Addressing the nationwide scope of the pilot programme, An noted that the project must meet the requirements stated in the resolution before starting the implementation process.

He also suggested designing a specific article detailing the rights and responsibilities of real estate businesses in order to develop a healthy and appropriate market without surges in land prices or violations.

NA Deputy Phạm Văn Hòa from Đồng Tháp Province also agreed to pilot the programme nationwide, avoiding the ‘mechanism of favours’ and concerns about the selection of pilot localities.

He added that the NA and the Government need to address cases where people have moved into their new apartments but still encounter challenges in completing legal procedures.

Speaking at the meeting, Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Đỗ Đức Duy noted that this resolution is to provide additional land access for commercial housing projects that are not included in the current Law on Land.

Regarding the mechanisms for transferring land use rights and land access for commercial housing projects, the minister noted that the 2014 Law on Housing limited private negotiations with land users, and land use right holders requesting a change of use purpose to carry out commercial housing projects.

The amended 2024 Law on Land also introduced stricter regulations regarding this matter.

Accordingly, commercial housing projects of less than 20 hectares will have difficulty accessing land resources as they do not belong to the project category that allows land recovery by the State.

They are also not eligible for land use right transfer or change of land use purpose, if the project area does not have existing residential land.

“Therefore, the purpose of this resolution is to address the bottlenecks that are reported across the country, especially in smaller provinces where the real estate market is modest and has few urban zone projects of 20 hectares or more.

“Due to the scale of the issue, it is necessary to implement this resolution nationwide to ensure fairness,” said Duy.

Regarding food security and farmland protection, the minister emphasised that this issue is under strict control from the planning stage at the national and provincial level, as well as in construction and urban development plans.

Plans and policies have stated that agricultural land can be converted to non-agricultural use for social-economic development projects, including those for commercial housing projects under this resolution, as well as other projects in line with the 2024 land law.

“Therefore, whether carried out based on the Law on Land or the pilot mechanism of this resolution, all projects must comply with these plans, which are already required to ensure 3.5 million hectares for rice fields and forest coverage,” said minister Duy. — VNS