The Law Committee conducted a preliminary review of the Housing Law project.

On the morning of March 6, the National Assembly's Law Committee conducted a preliminary review of the draft Law on Housing (amended).

After nearly eight years of implementing the Housing Law, the housing sector has achieved important achievements. However, in addition to the results achieved, the implementation of legal documents on housing has shown many shortcomings and limitations.

Minister of Construction Trinh Dinh Dung speaks at the meeting. (Photo: An Dang/VNA)

One of the major shortcomings at present is that the current Housing Law does not have regulations requiring localities to develop housing development programs and plans, especially clearly defining land funds when approving construction planning and having plans to mobilize resources for development for each type of housing. This is the reason leading to the situation of rampant housing development, following trends, not following planning, causing an imbalance in housing supply and demand, a lack of affordable housing for low-income people, poor households facing housing difficulties but a surplus of high-end housing.

The new current law mainly regulates housing development according to market mechanisms without clearly defining mechanisms and policies and defining the responsibilities of the State, organizations and individuals involved in developing social housing. Therefore, recently, enterprises have only focused on developing commercial housing, while in many localities, the government has not paid due attention to developing social housing...

Another shortcoming is that the Housing Law's regulations on the time of transferring home ownership are not strict, unreasonable, and do not guarantee the rights of home owners when exercising their rights to the home. In many cases, the purchase and sale of the home has been completed but cannot be transferred to another person because they do not have ownership rights or do not meet the conditions for transfer... These are the main shortcoming that lead to the need to research and develop the Housing Law (amended).

The Drafting Committee said that the Law on Housing (amended) was built on the viewpoint that housing development must be reflected in the overall planning of the country's socio-economic development, must comply with the planning, programs and plans for housing development in each stage of each locality; housing development must ensure synchronization of technical infrastructure, social infrastructure, meet the requirements of construction quality, architecture, landscape amenities, environment and be suitable for each stage of the country's development.

Develop diverse and harmonious types of housing, including apartments, individual houses; houses for sale, rent, and purchase to suit the needs and affordability of each group in society; establish appropriate financial institutions for housing development so that businesses and all people, especially social policy beneficiaries and low-income earners, can access credit capital for housing improvement purposes; gradually meet the increasingly better housing needs of all classes of people...

The Government proposed 10 groups of issues that need to be amended. The draft Housing Law (amended) will have 13 Chapters with 178 Articles. Compared to the current Housing Law with nine Chapters and 153 Articles, this draft Law adds four Chapters and 25 Articles.

Through discussion, the majority of opinions agreed with the viewpoints and requirements for the development of the Housing Law (amended). The Standing Committee of the Law Committee found that it is necessary to affirm that housing creation is first and foremost the responsibility of the people. The responsibility of the State is to have policies to encourage and create conditions for individuals to create housing, for organizations and individuals to participate in investing in housing development and business. However, according to the assessment, some proposals have not yet provided reasonable housing solutions for policy beneficiaries, the poor, and low-income people in the market mechanism, but still bear the mark of the "subsidy" mechanism from the State.

The scope of the draft Law is broader than the current Law. Accordingly, in addition to individual houses, construction works for exploitation and lease such as student and worker dormitories, hotels, motels in tourist, ecological, resort areas, sports facilities and in existing residential areas, even military barracks and police barracks are considered as housing and subject to the regulation of this Law.

Some opinions said that although the scope of regulation has been expanded, it mainly focuses on the field of housing development according to projects; while individual housing, existing housing in urban areas and rural residential areas have not received real attention for reasonable adjustment in this Law; it is recommended that the drafting agency clearly define the scope of regulation in the direction of only regulating specific housing contents that are not regulated by other laws; continue to review to amend inappropriate contents or propose amendments to regulations in other laws to ensure the consistency of the legal system, in accordance with the provisions of the Law on promulgation of legal documents...

Delegate Nguyen Sy Cuong, from the Law Committee, assessed that the draft law lacked a general housing regulation, which led to anyone being able to build whatever they wanted even though they did not meet the general conditions. According to the delegate, this was the cause of the super-thin houses in recent times.

According to the Report, there are currently two opinions on the time of transferring house ownership. The first is consistent with Article 14 of the draft Law that in the case of buying and selling, or renting and purchasing houses between individuals, the time of transferring house ownership is from the time the buyer or the lessee has fully paid for the house; in the case of donating or exchanging houses between individuals, the time of transferring house ownership is from the time the donor or the exchanger hands over the house to the donor or the exchanger. The second opinion suggests that in the cases of buying and selling, donating, renting and exchanging houses between individuals, the time of transferring house ownership is from the time the contract is notarized or certified.

Regarding this issue, the Standing Committee of the Law Committee found that the time of transferring home ownership is an important issue, directly related to the ownership rights of the home owner; it is proposed to stipulate that the time of transferring home ownership is the time of registration at the land registration organization under the land management agency, except in cases of inheritance opening according to the provisions of law.

This regulation will limit the time of transferring land use rights and housing at different times, while the issuance of Certificates of land use rights, house ownership rights and other assets attached to land is a unified form issued at the same time.

Delegate Nguyen Thi Kim Thuy, Committee on Social Affairs, also proposed to regulate that the time of transferring house ownership is the time of registering house ownership at the competent state agency, except in the case of inheritance, according to the provisions of civil law; at the same time, it is necessary to design additional regulations to ensure the legitimate rights and interests of people in this case...

Regarding the management of 2% of the maintenance fund for apartment buildings, many opinions say that assigning the District Housing Management Agency (Construction Department) where the apartment building is located to manage 2% of the maintenance fund for apartment buildings is unreasonable and inconsistent with the functions and tasks of the District Housing Management Agency.

To solve this problem, many opinions agree that the Management Board of the apartment building is responsible for managing 2% of the maintenance fund, because this amount of money is contributed by the apartment owners, the Management Board is elected by the apartment owners to represent the apartment owners, so the Management Board is reasonable and suitable for reality.

Delegate Nguyen Sy Cuong and many other opinions suggested that there should be strict regulations on the responsibilities and operating mechanisms of the apartment building management board, to prevent possible risks when assigning the apartment building management board to manage 2% of the maintenance fund...

Opinions at the review session were analyzed to clarify issues on the Social Housing Development Fund; on home ownership rights of foreign organizations and individuals in Vietnam; investment projects to build public housing...

Minister of Construction Trinh Dinh Dung, on behalf of the Drafting Committee, received and clarified a number of issues raised by delegates during the review process. Based on the opinions at this review session, the Drafting Committee will promptly complete the draft Law on Construction (amended) to submit to the National Assembly Standing Committee at the 26th session taking place this March for consideration and comments./.

According to VNA