An old apartment building in Thành Công Street, Hà Nội. — Photo enternews.vn

HÀ NỘI — The important task of renovating and rebuilding dilapidated apartment buildings in Hà Nội has faced several obstacles related to planning, land clearance, and profits for investors and residents, Hà Nội Mới (New Hà Nội) newspaper has reported.

According to the Ministry of Construction, Hà Nội has more than 1,500 old apartment buildings constructed between 1960 and 1990, most of which are located in the city’s inner districts.

Ten years after beginning renovation work on old apartment buildings, the city has renovated and put into use 14 of over 1,500 old buildings.

Five buildings are being demolished. Residents of four other buildings in an extremely poor condition have been evacuated, however, there are not yet any plans to rebuild or renovate the structures.

City authorities are calling for investment from the private sector to reduce pressure on the State budget.

The city has called for private investment in 28 buildings. So far, 16 investors have registered to take part in constructing such buildings.

However, according to investors, a number of regulations are not suitable with reality.

According to Tống Thị Hạnh, head of the Legal Department at the Ministry of Construction, a decree which took effect in 2015 requires that the newly-constructed building’s height and number of tenants must be the same as the old one. On the other hand, investors say that the new building must have an area three times larger than the old one and be 15 to 18 floors higher in order to offset the capital they spend on construction.

Deputy minister at the Ministry of Construction, Lê Quang Hùng, said that regulations must create favorable conditions to allow investors to increase the height of buildings in suitable places.

Architect Trương Văn Quảng from Việt Nam Urban Planning and Development Association proposed removing the regulation which requires the new building to be the same size as the previous one.

The new buildings can be multi-functional to keep up with new urban development trends, he said.

To accelerate the work of renovating and rebuilding old apartment buildings in the city, he said that mechanisms related to land compensation, investor selection and resettlement must be further completed.

The benefits for each side (investors and residents) should also be clarified, he said.

He proposed the city or province-level People’s Committee be granted the right to select investors which are able to mobilise funding themselves besides State investment and projects under the Build-Transfer model. — VNS