A far-reaching 10-year plan to improve housing in the capital city has been approved by Ha Noi People’s Council as it concluded its four-day working session on Friday.

The plan aims to completely eradicate low-quality and temporary housing and replace them with high-end apartments and homes built using environmentally friendly materials and energy-saving electrical equipment, especially in the newly constructed urban areas and housing projects.

Focus will also be paid to removing temporary and makeshift houses built along the banks of the rivers and canals as well as under footbridges in the city.

The project aims to increase the average floor space in each dwelling to 31sq.m per person in urban areas and 28sq.m in rural zones by 2025, and up to 33sq.m in urban areas and 28sq.m in rural zones by 2030.

New apartments built will each have a minimum area of 40sq.m, while efforts would be expended to improve the rate of affordable apartments with at least 45sq.m in space to service the demands of the majority of the people in the city, according to the Ha Noi People's Council.

The city also strives to have all new residential areas or new urban areas larger than 10ha be planned in a 'smart, green, digital' fashion, with all critical infrastructures like electricity and water, public education institutions, waste collection points, electrical vehicle charging stations guaranteed.

It is hoped that a total of 45 million sq.m of private housing's floor space will be developed in 2021-30 period, around 4.5 million each year.

As more industrial zones and enterprises move into the region, the resolution wants to ensure housing for any workers moving into the area and stipulated that workers’ housing should be an essential component of the infrastructure for industrial parks.

Employers, management boards of industrial parks, local authorities and trade union organisations will be responsible for the workers’ housing.

The entire project will cost around VND880 trillion ($37.6 billion), of which, VND11.7 trillion is sourced from the city's budget. About 1,868ha of land is needed for the construction of housing projects in Ha Noi, including 1,384ha in the urban areas and 484ha in the rural areas.

Resources will also be mobilised and support offered to poor and near-poor households to build, repair and upgrade existing degraded and damaged houses to ensure they each contain solid foundations, walls and roofs.

The city will review and speed up the upgrade of old apartment buildings, giving priority to the rebuilding in six residential quarters with houses in danger of collapse. — VNS