NEWS

Vietnam does not have high-grade apartments yet, experts say, simply because there are no standards for ‘high-grade apartments’.

As there are no standards for ‘high-grade apartments’, people still argue about whether Vietnam has high-grade apartments or not. Phu My Hung’s apartments in HCM City and Ciputra’s in Hanoi, which many people call ‘luxurious’ and ‘aristocratic’, may not be ‘condos’ in the eyes of other people.

A lot of questions have been raised relating to the setting up of standards for high-grade apartments. Which standards must apartments have to be recognized as ‘high-grade’? Who will make conclusions about the grade of apartments, management authorities, or buyers? How long will the title of ‘high-grade apartment’ be valid?

Dinh Ngoc Bach from the Housing Management Department under the Ministry of Construction said that like other products, houses and apartments should be classified and they need to be given the certificates that show the real quality of apartments.

According to Mr Bach, a lot of projects built recently with medium-class facilities and quality and low investment have been advertised as ‘high-grade apartments’ and sold at the prices of luxury products.

Mr Bach said that he knows a very commonplace apartment building with poor infrastructure system, which has the selling price of VND6-8mil/sq m only, and has been advertised as ‘high-grade apartments’.

In that case, the investor of the project has used the word ‘high-grade apartments’ to make profit while selling the products with the quality lower than advertised. The investor has been successful in doing that, because buyers purchased the apartments right when the projects were still on paper and they could not see the apartments with their eyes.

An official from the Housing Management Agency under the Ministry of Construction also said that it is necessary to set up criteria for classifying apartments. State management authorities will refer to the criteria to recognize the quality of apartments, and buyers will decide whether to buy apartments after considering the certificates on quality granted by state management authorities.

Experts have also emphasized the important role of state management over the quality of real estate buildings. Tran Chung, Head of the National Agency for Housing Inspection, said that currently, project investors do not have the responsibility to inform local authorities about whether they have followed the set requirements before putting apartments into use.

After agreeing that it is necessary to give certificates on the quality of apartments, experts said that it is still necessary to find out the answer for the question on how long the certificate will be valid.

Pham Hung, Chief Executive Officer of Lilama, said that in many cases, the apartments which are called ‘luxurious’ today will become popular in the future.

Source: Thời báo Kinh tế Việt Nam