Hanoi housing violations worth US$69.4 million

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The violations and the poor quality of planning of residential areas were found after the inspectors checked 38 out of 204 projects.

Housing plans were adjusted several times, leading to changes in the heights of buildings and land use coefficient. In particular, the arbitrary adjustment of plans affected the rulings and interests of the State, according to the inspectors’ conclusion.

The Government Inspectorate has detected violations worth US$69.4 million in many housing projects developed in Hanoi between 2002 and 2014.

“This situation has led to difficulties in building a correlative urban planning for the city," Tran Huu Loi, head of the inspection delegation, told the Tien Phong (Vanguard) newspaper.

These violations benefitted investors because they were not obliged to pay more land use fee or land rent as the adjustment of plans had been made in favour of the investors, causing losses to the State budget, the Government Inspectorate said.

Further, housing project developers did not fulfill their financial obligations.

For example, the investor of the CT2 land plot under the Kim Van-Kim Lu New Urban Area Project in Hoang Mai district did not pay land use fee equal to 733 billion VND (32.24 million USD), although it built houses for rent.

In many projects, inspectors found investors illegally altering land use and construction plans, using more land but not paying land use fee for the extended area.

At the time of inspection, many investors had not yet paid obligatory fees to the State budget.

The Hanoi People’s Committee also miscalculated land use fee, while in some cases, housing project investors did not fulfill all their financial obligations, resulting in a shortfall of 6 trillion VND (266.6 million USD) for the State budget.

On the basis of the inspection results, the Government Inspectorate has proposed the Prime Minister direct the chairman of the city People’s Committee to take measures to rectify shortcomings and violations in management of construction investment and land use.

The committee needs to review and check project investors violating land use and construction plans to handle the violations, it said.

Organisations and individuals also have to review their responsibility in management, the Government Inspectorate added.