Renovating Old Apartments in Hanoi: High-Rises without Increasing the Number of Units

According to Mr. Nguyen, the current inner-city planning of Hanoi still allows for the construction of high-rise buildings but with limitations. Specifically, regarding the planning for old apartment building renovation, the Hanoi People’s Committee has directed that the construction of high-rise buildings is not prohibited, but it is essential to ensure the principle of not increasing the population and supplementing infrastructure.

The leader of the Department of Planning and Architecture gave an example of a situation where an old apartment complex with five buildings and 1,000 apartments would require 1,000 corresponding apartments for relocation, which could result in a larger area. Previously, some old apartments had a size of only 30 square meters, but with an applied coefficient of 2, the new apartments could be up to 60 square meters. If residents wish to occupy 120 square meters, it would still be approved, but besides the compensated 60 square meters, they would have to pay for the additional 60 square meters themselves. “The nature of this is mainly commercial, but we don’t increase the number of apartments; we only increase the apartment area,” said Mr. Nguyen.

For areas where the actual population is higher than the planned population, infrastructure will be used to make up the difference. The leader of the Department continued with another example: “If there are 1,000 existing apartments, and the planned population is 2,000, but when we actually survey the population, it turns out to be 3,000, then when making the plan, we must calculate the infrastructure for 3,000 people and only provide 1,000 corresponding apartments. In conclusion, we only exchange apartments of equal number. Even though the population remains at 3,000, the infrastructure for schools and other facilities will still be calculated for 3,000 people. This doesn’t mean that we have to increase the number of apartments to accommodate the 3,000 people because if the state doesn’t intervene, those residents will still have to live cramped in old and degraded apartment buildings,” affirmed Mr. Nguyen.

The leader of the Department also expressed the opinion that the districts and counties must take action and engage consulting units to determine the specific number of floors after renovation and reconstruction. “We must be specific, and it is even possible to propose constructing a 100-story building if the surrounding infrastructure, landscape, and people’s consensus can be ensured,” he said.

According to Tien Phong’s understanding, to ensure the progress of implementing the detailed planning for the renovation and reconstruction of old apartment buildings according to the plan of the Hanoi People’s Committee, the Department of Planning and Architecture has issued many guiding and urging documents to the People’s Committees of the districts, counties, and Son Tay town, especially emphasizing the priority of deploying the first phase of apartment buildings according to the schedule in Plan No. 329 dated December 31, 2021, of the Hanoi People’s Committee. At the same time, they coordinate with previous investors who had studied and formulated planning tasks and ideas for old apartment buildings in their management areas (which were stopped due to inconsistencies with current legal regulations on planning organization units) and the Hanoi Institute of Planning and Architecture (the consulting unit for planning formulation) to receive, refer to, and utilize the completed contents to shorten the research time and accelerate the progress of implementing the detailed planning for the renovation and reconstruction of old apartments in the city.

To provide a further basis for the People’s Committees of the districts, counties, and Son Tay town to accelerate the progress of researching and establishing detailed planning for the renovation and reconstruction of old apartment buildings in their respective areas, the Department of Planning and Architecture issued Document No. 3441/QHKT-KHTH dated August 5, 2022, providing planning information for old apartment areas in phase 1 according to Plan No. 329/KH-UBND dated December 31, 2021, of the Hanoi People’s Committee.