The Breathtaking Aerial View of 3,790 Apartments in Thu Thiem, Soon to be Auctioned Off

The Vice Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee, Mr. Bui Xuan Cuong, has approved the proposal by the city’s Department of Construction to continue with the auction of 3,790 apartments in Lots R1, R2, R3, R4, and R5 within the 38.4-hectare area of the new Thu Thiem Urban Area in An Khanh Ward, Thu Duc City.

The Ministry of Construction has agreed to convert the purpose and functionality of these apartments to commercial housing.

The Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee holds the Department of Construction responsible for the accuracy of the related reports and proposals. The heads of the departments, sectors, and related units are assigned to coordinate and implement the directions of the Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee.

At the same time, the Department of Natural Resources and Environment (now called the Department of Agriculture and Environment) is requested to expedite the auction of the aforementioned 3,790 apartments, ensuring compliance with legal regulations and preventing any damage or loss of public assets.

Notably, this resettlement area has undergone at least four unsuccessful auctions. It is only now that the 3,790 apartments in Lots R1, R2, R3, R4, and R5 have been approved for conversion to commercial housing and auction.

These apartments are part of the 12,500-unit resettlement program for the Thu Thiem Super City project. The project is located along the main Mai Chi Tho Street, with connections to several roads, including Luong Dinh Cua. The project was handed over before 2016.

However, in the past, during the compensation selection process, many people felt that the compensation prices did not closely follow market values. As a result, they opted to receive monetary compensation instead of the apartments prepared by the city. This has led to the surplus of apartments since then.

In previous auctions, the starting price for the 3,790 apartments was set at VND 9,900 billion.

Regarding the unsuccessful auctions of these resettlement apartments, experts pointed out that the high starting price and the large total auction amount made it challenging for any single entity to take on the project. Additionally, while the project was constructed years ago, it has not been operational and has experienced some deterioration. Any investor who participates would need to invest significant additional funds for repairs and renovations before reselling.

Previously, the city had also proposed converting the Thu Thiem New Urban Area resettlement apartments into commercial apartments. However, after calculating construction costs, interest expenses, and land prices, the investment cost exceeded VND 27 million per square meter, excluding land compensation and other expenses.

The former leadership of the Department of Construction affirmed that the city’s leaders had proposed converting these 3,790 resettlement apartments into commercial apartments, but it was challenging to switch them to social housing due to various issues, including land use fees and site clearance compensation. Moreover, social housing regulations stipulate a size range of 20-70 square meters, while over 70% of the apartments in the resettlement project have sizes above 60-70 square meters.

Notably, adjacent to the aforementioned resettlement area are Lots R8 and R9 of the New City project, for which the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee has allowed temporary payment of land use rights after a long period of difficulties.

After the successful auction of the 3,790 apartments, the city will recalculate the land use rights value of the New City project to propose appropriate handling solutions.