HANOI: Investors of social housing projects are banned from collecting deposits from home buyers, the Ha Noi Department of Construction said.
The department has recently issued an announcement for home buyers, suggesting that they should carefully study the regulations and procedures while buying or renting an apartment in a social housing project. This will help them to avoid losing money on real estate transaction floors.
The buying and renting of property should follow regulations in Decree 188/2013/ND-CP, dated October 20, 2013, and Circular 08/2014/TT-BXD, dated May 23, 2014, on the development and management of social housing projects.
Accordingly, households and individuals should submit their applications only to addresses published on the department website soxaydung.hanoi.gov.vn and the official websites of the investors, but not on estate transaction floors. It also said home buyers should not accept illegal transfers in social housing projects.
The announcement was issued as some investors and property transaction floors in the capital have asked home buyers to pay deposits and prices higher than the stipulated levels. The money will be their first payment after the signing of the purchase contract; if they decide not to buy the apartment, they lose the deposit.
However, many people registered to buy apartments in social housing projects, and then decided not to proceed with the purchase. This made investments in such projects risky. There are regulations on deposits for commercial house purchases, but none for social housing.
Recently, several social housing projects were put on sale on property transaction floors with deposits of VND50 million to VND70 million per apartment.
For example, the Dai Kim social housing project in Hoang Mai District, built by Handico 5, announced that it would accept applications from home buyers from September 3 to 17. However, some estate transaction floors offered the project’s apartments for deposits of VND50 million to VND60 million each. The transaction floors said the deposit would be considered as a commitment to ensure that buyers were eligible to buy such apartments.
The municipal People’s Committee has asked the construction department to help investors conclude home purchase contracts and grant certificates of land-use rights to social housing projects.
The department will review the sale and rent amounts at social housing projects so certificates can be granted. In addition, it will push investors to organise apartment conferences to complete technical and social infrastructure in each project.
The department has also been asked to review projects that were converted from commercial to social housing. The licences of those that have delayed construction will be revoked and the projects handed over to other investors. The review will be submitted to the People’s Committee this month.
