HoREA opposes the time limit for apartment ownership

The Ho Chi Minh City Real Estate Association (HoREA) has just reported on the review results of the 2014 Housing Law to comment on the Draft Housing Law Draft (amended) submitted by the Ministry of Construction to the Prime Minister.

In this report, HoREA commented that the “regulation of apartment ownership period” is at odds with many existing laws.

Regulations about the term of apartment ownership mconflict with many existing laws

According to HoREA, the Ministry of Construction is collecting comments on the draft outline of the Housing Law (amended) and in the draft report, it is stated that for the first time, the Housing Law 2014 has regulations on house ownership with a fixed term. , creating a basis to diversify and increase the supply channel of diverse housing products in the form of term ownership, helping people to access housing with quality and reasonable price. ability to pay.

However, the number of houses sold under the form of ownership with a definite term is not much and the Ministry of Construction proposes to supplement specific regulations on the term of apartment ownership in Article 9 of the draft outline of the Law on Housing. Revision).

According to Mr. Le Hoang Chau, Chairman of HoREA, we have researched and found that the proposal to supplement regulations on the term of apartment ownership is not suitable for the case that the apartment building is built on stable residential land. long-term and apartment building owners have stable and long-term residential land use rights for the area of ​​land for construction of the apartment complex in accordance with the law on land and there have been a number of inadequacies.

In addition, the law on housing and land recognizes legal ownership of houses associated with long-term stable land use rights, including apartment house owners.

Since then, there have been a number of inadequacies and contradictions in the Land Law 2013, Housing Law 2014, Decree 43…

Specifically, according to Mr. Chau, the 2013 Land Law stipulates (in Clause 1, Article 125): “Land users may use land stably and long-term in cases where residential land is used by households and individuals.” .

The 2014 Housing Law stipulates (Article 99): The useful life of an apartment building is determined based on the grade of construction work and the quality inspection conclusion of the provincial housing authority where the apartment building is located. …

Decree 43 (2014) of the Government stipulates (Clause 3, Article 49): “Land area under the common use right of apartment owners… Land use rights specified at Point a, Clause This is a common use right in an indivisible part… The apartment owner is granted a certificate of land use right, ownership of houses and other land-attached assets for the used land area. specified in Point a of this Clause for a long-term stable term…”.

According to the National Technical Regulation on the principles of classification and decentralization of civil and industrial works and urban technical infrastructure (QCVN 03:2021/BXD – promulgated in accordance with Circular No. 12, 2012 of the Ministry of the Ministry of Industry and Trade. Construction), stipulating the useful life and lifespan of houses and works: Class of special works, grade 1 (Level I): The useful life is over 100 years; Grade 2 works (Level II): The service life is from 50 years to 100 years; Grade 3 works (Level III): The useful life is from 20 years to less than 50 years; Grade 4 works (Level IV): The service life is less than 20 years.

Therefore, HoREA believes that the law on housing and land recognizes the legal ownership of houses associated with long-term stable land use rights, including apartment owners. , Mr. Chau confirmed.

Confusion between “shelf life” and “lifetime of ownership”

According to Mr. Le Hoang Chau, Chairman of HoREA, there may have been confusion in understanding between ownership of an apartment building on long-term stable residential land and the project’s useful life. Houses and construction works have a lifespan whose useful life is specified in QCVN 03:2021/BXD promulgated under Circular 12/2012/TT-BXD of the Ministry of Construction.

In particular, for apartment buildings that have expired, the provincial housing management agency must organize the quality inspection of this apartment building for handling according to the provisions of Article 99 of the Law on Housing 2014, but still have to ensure the ownership of apartments, other construction areas and land use rights of apartment house owners in accordance with the provisions of the law on land and the law on housing.

However, not for the reason that houses and construction works have a useful life, but it is not appropriate to propose regulations on the duration of apartment ownership.

According to Mr. Chau, the Law on Housing 2014 stipulates that the parties can agree on the seller selling the house, transferring the right to use residential land attached to that house within a certain period of time to the buyer and the house. The country fully reserves the right to enforce this policy when selling a state-owned home to a buyer within a certain period of time.

But in fact, over the past 30 years, our State has implemented the policy of selling state-owned houses to tenants (selling price of houses) with most of them being apartments and condominiums, the State has allowed allowing home buyers to have house ownership rights associated with long-term stable residential land use rights.

Refer to the experience of social housing development policy in housing projects of the Housing Development Authority of Singapore (HDB) that stipulates a 99-year HDB apartment ownership term.

The association found that the 99-year HDB apartment ownership period is intended to make it easier for the Singapore Government to re-use land for urban reconstruction and redevelopment, and only applies to houses of this type. HDB is invested by the State.

“Therefore, it is proposed not to add regulations on the term of apartment ownership such as Article 9 of the draft outline of the Housing Law (amended) and propose to keep the regulations on house ownership, ownership definite-term houses are specified in Article 4; Clause 1, Article 5; Clause 2, Article 9; Article 99; and Clause 1, Article 123 of the Law on Housing 2014”, Mr. Chau suggested.