As reported by Lao Dong newspaper’s reporter, at the Vinh Loc B resettlement area in Binh Chanh District, only a few hundred households are living there. After 9 years in use, the resettlement area has a total area of 31 hectares, including 45 apartment lots, with 2,240 apartments which have been seriously degraded.
Ma Kim Hoa (58 years old, Lot A2.10, Vinh Loc B resettlement area) said: “My family is one of the first few households to move here. Previously, we lived very comfortably with our own business: selling noodles in a small house in Nancy market (District 1). However, since I moved here, I could not continue my old job. I’m now staying at home, waiting for my children's monthly financial support.”
Hoa added when she lived in the city center, just bringing some tables in front of her shop and selling noodles, she could earn money and live on her own feet. “Now, I don't see anyone doing business. When I first came here, I also intended to sell the noodles, but after seeing many people giving up their business because of the sluggish performances, I abandoned this intention,” she told the reporter.
Le Minh Hai, who live at Lot C10, told his story: “My family moved to Vinh Loc B resettlement area 4 years ago. All three of my children are accepted to take apartments here, but they have to rent houses since their jobs are already stale in the old places, which are more than 10 kilometers away from the resettlement area.”
The absence of residents also occurs in Binh Khanh resettlement area (District 2), with a scale of up to 12,500 apartments on a total area of 38.4 hectares. Five years after its completion, there are still thousands of vacant apartments, including uninhabited buildings.
HCMC’s Department of Construction said there are currently more than 14,000 vacant resettlement apartments, most concentrated in the Binh Khanh resettlement area (District 2) with more than 12,000 ones, and Vinh Loc B resettlement area (Binh Chanh district) with over 2,000 ones. Due to the deteriorating construction, to recover the investment of trillions of dong, the city People's Committee has recently asked the Central Government to auction 3,790 vacant resettlement apartments in Thu Thiem.
According to the Ho Chi Minh City Real Estate Association, about 476,000 households in the city have no home or living with relatives, accounting for nearly 25% of the total number of households, including about 20,000 households of cadres and civil servants. In addition, the city has more than 20,000 households living along canals and 35,000 households living in old apartments that need to be renovated or resettled.
