Ashui.com

The Ministry of Construction has asked provinces to make inspections on the quality of low-priced houses for workers and students, aiming to abate public concern about the bad quality of this cheap housing option.

Nguyen Tran Nam, deputy minister of Construction, said that provincial People’s Committees needed to ensure the quality of these houses and were not allowed to sell poor-quality low-priced houses.

Accordingly, the inspection results on these houses built since 2008 will be reported to the ministry over the next two weeks.

The inspection will also target housing projects still under construction for the same group of people.

According to the ministry, the country has more than 700,000 civil servants, millions of workers and nearly 1 million students who are in need of housing.

Last April, the Government issued Resolution No 18 to encourage investments in housing for low-income people.

Fifty-four provinces and cities will build 267 dormitories with a total area of nearly 5 million square metres to house more than 800,000 students by 2010.

More than 20 provinces and cities had registered 189 low-income housing projects with a total area of 7.1 million square metres. They are expected to provide accommodation for around 700,000 people by 2015.

Construction on these projects is estimated to cost VND28.5 trillion (US$1.6 billion). Of this amount, VND27.2 trillion will come from the developers and the rest from local government coffers.

Pham Sy Liem, deputy chairman of the Viet Nam Federation of Civil Engineering Associations, said that worries about low-priced houses were understandable after previous resettlement houses were found to be sub-standard.

Vu Thi Huong, a worker at the Textile and Garment Company 10, said that all resettlement houses at low prices were of poor quality. Many resettlement buildings in Ha Noi’s Nam Trung Yen and Trung Hoa - Nhan Chinh areas had become downgraded after only a short period of use.

Huong said that residents had to pay large sums of money for repairs to their apartments.

Liem said that there should be guaranteed funds set up by investors so that if any delapidation occured to the houses, the workers or students would be compensated properly.

Nguyen Quoc Tuan, deputy director of Ha Noi’s Construction Department, said that there were no low-quality houses built for workers and students because it was their responsibility to check on and make maintenance to these buildings before and during use.