As covered in local media these days, hundreds of houses are being demolished in each of Go Vap and Binh Chanh districts where illegal construction is the most rampant and chaotic. The tough stance is taken by authorities following an instruction by HCMC Chairman Le Hoang Quan in a meeting this week, demanding that order in housing development be restored.

In Go Vap District’s Ward 15 alone, up to 160 houses that were illegally constructed within one month in a quarter known as Ap Doi from May 15 to June 20 are being demolished, Tuoi Tre reports. Most of the illegal works being razed to the ground are decent ones, and have been developed due to the ignorance of grassroots officials, says the newspaper.

A resident with an illegal house in Ap Doi says in Tuoi Tre that if authorities had been tough from the beginning when only one or two houses had been erected, the people would not have built numerous houses thereafter.

In Binh Chanh District, the situation is similar, with hundreds of houses being removed now, including dozens owned by grassroots officials, according to Nguoi Lao Dong. The newspaper in several investigative reports charges officials’ dereliction of duty as the key reason behind the chaotic housing development.

Owners of illegal houses in Binh Chanh District say that they had to give bribes ranging from VND30 million to VND50 million to officials to build houses without construction permits. Such officials, including construction inspectors, often harassed residents for illegal gains, and not any house can be illegally built without bribes given to them, says Nguoi Lao Dong.

A resident relates that “no one can dream of building houses without permits if owners do not bribe officials.” Pointing to a row of 21 houses being brought down, she says some VND5 billion of properties will be reduced to rubble, and hundreds of people will be made homeless in the coming months.

Illegal housing development in HCMC is not an acute disease, but rather a chronic illness that has persisted for years without strong measures prescribed by the local government.

Nguyen Minh Hoa, dean of the Urbanization Faculty at the HCMC University of Social Sciences and Humanities, says in Sai Gon Giai Phong that illegal housing development has taken place in the city for several years now due to many loopholes in State management. Up to 830 illegal works in Binh Chanh, plus many others elsewhere in the city, that must be demolished in the coming time will be a huge waste for the society. It is noteworthy that most of the illegal houses belong to the poor, who have saved their earnings for years to build their shelters, only to see them evaporated now.

Hoa points to a wrongful cycle of housing development in the city as the key reason behind such chaos: houses are built without permits, followed by fines paid by the owners, and then legalization of such houses by competent agencies. Such a cycle has encouraged many people to build houses, especially in the context that it is very complicated and time-consuming to obtain a construction license. Examples also include costly hi-rise buildings, such as Bao Viet Building on Dong Khoi Street and BMC Building on Vo Van Kiet Boulevard, stresses the lecturer.

Lao Dong recalls how houses have been illegally built en masse in the city since decades ago without drastic curative measures. In 2003, as many as 293 houses were built in Tan Phu District’s Tay Thanh Ward, while four years later, over 400 houses illegally sprang up in Binh Hung Hoa Ward in Binh Tan District. In Hoc Mon District, the scale is even larger, with over 1,000 houses having been built in Thoi Tam Thon Commune without any single construction permit, says the paper.

Illegal construction has become a game of chance, as the owner in certain cases can pay fines and have their houses legalized, which is less costly than undergoing through the formal process of procedures, according to Lao Dong.

In fact, after the Construction Law took effect in 2004, the HCMC government has legalized an incredible number of over 100,000 houses that had been developed without permits, says Lao Dong. Such a move has sent ripple effects, encouraging the rampant development of houses in the city, although by the law all illegal constructions must be removed.

Now comes the tough stance, however.

The city government in the meeting this week has discussed punitive actions. Apart from the devastating measure of tearing down illegal works, authorities this time are determined not to legalize the houses, not to supply water and power to the houses, not to issue business certificates to the house owners, not to grant residence permission for the lodgers, and other sanctions.

Such tough sanctions are apparently needed to prevent chaotic development in the city, but the tremendous losses should have been avoided if State management had been consistent from the beginning. The waste is too big to control now.

Source: SaigonTimes.