Our correspondent’s investigation revealed hundreds of old and new houses in the An Trung residential area (Tan Binh Ward, Di An City, Binh Duong Province). Despite being labeled as a project, the area has a makeshift electrical system and lacks a proper drainage system.
An Trung Construction Investment Joint Stock Company (An Trung Company) received approval for the investment project of An Trung Residential Area from Binh Duong Provincial People’s Committee in 2006. The initially approved area was 19 hectares, which was later adjusted to over 11 hectares. In 2007, the detailed 1/500 planning of the project was approved by the People’s Committee of Di An Town (now Di An City) in Decision No. 3759. In 2012, the project was adjusted in the overall detailed planning in Decision No. 1135 (replacing Decision No. 3759).
With approximately 700 land lots, this area was once expected to become a new urban area and a highlight in the real estate development and planning of Di An. However, in 2014, even without complete legal procedures and technical infrastructure in place, An Trung Company proceeded to divide and sell the land lots with prices ranging from VND 300 million to nearly VND 1 billion per lot to hundreds of customers in the form of “deposit contracts” and “investment cooperation contracts.”
Many houses were built without permits in the An Trung residential project |
Although the project owner has collected money according to the value of each contract, the customers have not been granted land use certificates (pink books) for many years.
According to some residents, when signing the contract to purchase the land lots in the project, An Trung Company’s employees verbally committed that after purchasing the land, customers could freely build houses without permits as the project owner would guarantee it. Believing in this promise, many customers spent hundreds of millions of dong to build houses and have been living there for many years.
“More than 10 years ago, I bought a land lot from someone who had purchased it earlier. The broker affirmed that customers were allowed to build freely. Up until now, neither the land nor the house has a pink book (land use certificate). We cannot mortgage it for a loan, nor can we sell it, and we don’t know how long this house will exist, so we are very worried,” said Mr. N.D., a resident of the An Trung residential area.
In the project area, in addition to the hundreds of houses built without permits, the remaining area is vacant with overgrown grass |
Besides Mr. D.’s family, there are hundreds of other houses built without permits in this project. A representative of An Trung Company stated that in 2006, after receiving approval for the project, they started implementing it, but encountered difficulties in site clearance. Previously, the state supported compensation for site clearance, but after 2010, according to new regulations, enterprises had to compensate by themselves, which caused difficulties for the company.
The project owner affirmed that up to now, the project has not sold or transferred any land lots but only cooperated with customers in investment.
Related officials have fled
According to the People’s Committee of Tan Binh Ward (Di An City), all the houses in the An Trung residential area were built without permits, and this happened during the terms of two former chairmen of the ward. One of them, Mr. Nguyen Van Thien Dang, former Chairman of the People’s Committee of Tan Binh Ward and former Head of the Natural Resources and Environment Office of Di An, is currently wanted by the Binh Duong Provincial Police after being prosecuted as a defendant in the case of “Violation of regulations on land management.”
Regarding this project, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Binh Duong Province stated that up to now, the project owner has not coordinated in determining the financial obligations to proceed with the procedures for granting land use certificates.
Earlier, in 2022, the People’s Committee of Binh Duong Province assigned the Department of Construction to coordinate with related units to consider the project owner’s proposal on revoking the project’s investment policy and allowing the enterprise to implement it in the form of urban infrastructure improvement, complete tax obligations, and complete land procedures to consider granting pink books to households that have received land lot transfers and 392 households that have received resettlement.
In 2023, the People’s Committee of Binh Duong Province assigned the Department of Construction to coordinate with departments, branches, and localities to inspect and report to the Steering Committee for consideration and resolution of projects with slow implementation progress, legal difficulties, and numerous complaints, including the An Trung residential area project.
In 2024, the People’s Committee of Binh Duong Province issued a document assigning the Department of Construction to coordinate with related units to inspect the progress of the An Trung Residential Area project to serve as a basis for resolving problems related to the project. However, up to now, the problems in the project have not been resolved.
Huong Chi
– 06:46 10/06/2025
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