HCM City’s Department of Construction has announced the decision to exempt construction permits for 112 individual house projects. These are projects with approved detailed planning at a 1/500 scale or a 1/500 master plan, along with approved architectural designs.

Residents owning land in these projects must have legal documents proving land-use rights for residential purposes. Construction is not allowed if the land is under dispute.

After designing houses under architectural and planning standards, residents only need to submit a notification with design documents to local authorities at least three days before starting construction.

HCM City’s Department of Construction is expected to announce the second list of projects eligible for construction permit exemptions on July 15. Afterward, the department will continue reviewing and expanding the list of exempted areas, including Con Dao special zone.

HCM City’s expansion of areas exempt from construction permits is seen as a positive step in administrative reform, moving toward a “registration - post-inspection” model. This will save residents time and costs during the house-building process.

Prior to that, Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chinh directed the elimination of unnecessary procedures, including construction permits. Lawyer Nguyen Thanh Ha, Chair of SBLaw, believes that removing unnecessary procedures, including construction permits, should be institutionalized soon.

According to the lawyer, under the 2014 Construction Law (amended in 2020), obtaining a construction permit is mandatory for most projects, including individual houses in urban areas. However, this procedure is a burden for residents.

“A construction permit application typically takes about a month to complete, with average costs exceeding VND10 million for design drawings and various ‘unofficial fees.’ Not everyone can handle the process themselves, so most rely on intermediary services or ‘permit brokers,’ which contributes to corruption and harassment,” said lawyer Ha.

Notably, many design drawings are created merely to comply with permit regulations, but during construction, residents often adjust based on actual needs. Common violations, such as blocking ventilation shafts or encroaching on setback spaces, are widespread, rendering the current pre-inspection ineffective, he said.

Ha believes that abolishing construction permits, especially for individual houses, is feasible if planning is transparent and local authorities effectively conduct post-inspections. This is a trend successfully adopted by many countries.

However, Pham Viet Thuan, Director of HCM City’s Institute of Economic, Resource, and Environmental Studies, notes that HCM City primarily issues construction permits to individual houses based on urban architectural management, rather than approved 1/500 or 1/2000 detailed planning.

For residential areas with 1/500 planning, Thuan said construction permits are automatically exempted under the Construction Law. While this regulation has existed for a long time, inconsistent implementation has prevented residents from fully benefiting from the policy.

He argued that exempting construction permits for individual houses in areas with 1/500 planning is appropriate but cannot be called “innovative thinking” since it is already stipulated by law.

Should completion procedure be abolished?

In addition to supporting construction permit exemptions, many suggest that local authorities should also eliminate the completion procedure requirement to save residents time and costs.

According to a staff member from HCM City’s Department of Construction, under current regulations, the construction completion procedure is mandatory for individual houses after construction. It serves as the legal basis for authorities to recognize residents’ house ownership.

Typically, a completion dossier includes eight types of documents and authorities may require additional documents. The processing time ranges from three weeks to a month. Costs for each completion dossier are around several tens of millions VND.

For authorities, the completion procedure is necessary as it shows the actual state of the construction against the issued permit. If abolishing this procedure, especially when constructions deviate from planning standards, would complicate urban order management and create issues for issuing ownership certificates.

Nguyen Bao Vinh, a construction engineer, notes that construction often deviates from initial designs. In many cases, contractors expand constructions based on homeowners’ requests.

The problem is that construction works may not be recognized as completed, leading to issues with ownership certification.

According to Vinh, if a construction permit is the “input,” the completion procedure is the “output” proving a construction’s legality. Thus, exempting permits without controlling the completion procedure would create difficulties for urban management.

Anh Phuong