Empty houses litter city as real-estate skyrockets

22:08' 02/05/2008 (GMT+7)
While limited land funds are making it difficult for Hanoi to keep up with public works projects and ensuring enough accommodations, hundreds of villas in many urban areas are sitting half finished and abandoned.
Half-finished and abandoned houses in the new Linh Dam residential area in Hanoi.
In new urban areas, such as in Xuan La Ward of Tay Ho District, unfinished buildings covered in moss and pathways overgrown with grass sit next to beautiful apartment buildings.
A similar view can be seen in Van Quan Urban Area in Ha Dong City. Dozens of villas are unoccupied and covered with weeds. The area is littered with injection needles thrown out by drug addicts.
The situation is even worse in Me Tri Urban Area. Weeds, garbage, injection needles and condoms are piling up in unused villas.
Hoang Ngoc Thanh, who owns a house in the urban area, said many houses around his seem abandoned, although they were only built several years ago.
"I never see the owners of these houses," said Thanh.
Thanh said he bought his house from his cousin, who bought it from another acquaintance.

The fact that many houses in these urban areas are left abandoned is evidence that many houses have been sold to people purchasing the houses only for speculation. This has led to a huge waste in funds.

These abandoned houses provide a platform for socially vulnerable groups to carry out illegal activities, and is harmful to the surrounding environment.

Citizens from Me Tri Urban Area said they were worried about their safety, with drug addicts in the area.

A security guard from the same area said they had difficulty keeping an eye on the drug addicts and prostitutes staying in the abandoned houses.

The situation so far has no solution in sight.

A land consultant said these houses were unaffordable for the average buyer and would be difficult to sell.

"These houses keep waiting for their owners," said the consultant.

Even with empty houses littering the area, land and house prices have yet to go down.

Nguyen Chi Si, the director of Ha Noi No 2 Construction Investment Company, said the prices keep rising because of speculation.

While some policies have been implemented to prevent speculation, they have proven ineffective because the houses and land are being traded illegally, according to Si.

"If this keeps up, home ownership will be unreachable for most of the population," said the land consultant.

Nguyen Manh Ha, head of the House Management Department, said that houses must be bought by people intending to live in them.

The State should prevent speculation by collecting tax on land usage and on the house, said Ha.