A billboard offering 5.3sq.m of land for VND20 billion (US$870,000) that hung on Nguyen Van Huyen Street, Cau Giay District, at the end of last month was yet more proof of Ha Noi’s urban planning problems.

The land had been left over from the site clearance for a project to extend Nguyen Van Huyen.

Costing VND3.8 billion per sq.m, about 10 times higher than the average price of road-front land on the street, the land was just big enough to build a wall.

The billboard has since been removed.

In 2015, also on Nguyen Van Huyen Street, a plot measuring 1.7 sq.m, also formed after site clearance, was advertised for VND1 billion. The owner of the plot said if the owner of the adjacent lot bought his 1.7 sq.m land plot, the adjacent land would become road-front and its value would increase significantly, making it a good deal, according to the owner.

A similar case occurred on Le Truc Street, with a 0.3 sq.m wall sold for VND390 million.

Site clearance for road extensions has created a number of super-small land plots and super-thin and deformed small houses in the capital.

A report by the Ha Noi Department of Construction found there were 394 super-thin deformed houses built before March 15, 2005 (the date the Prime Minister’s Decision 39/QD-TTg instructing the implementation of the Law on Construction took effect) and 560 others formed from site clearance for road extension afterwards.

Up to now, 775 oddly-formed houses have been either renovated or demolished.

A total of 179 super-thin and deformed houses still exist in the city, statistics show.

The municipal construction authority said the best solution to handle these houses was to urge owners of adjacent land plots ineligible for construction (having areas of less than 15 sq.m) to combine their land. However, it was often difficult to reach an agreement between the seller and the buyer.

According to Nguyen The Khai, chairman of Viet Nam Architecture and Planning Joint Stock Company, said the problem lay in planning.

When performing site clearance for roads, little attention had been paid to the planning of the two roadsides, Khai said.

Khai said it was necessary to have planning for roadsides in new road constructions to tackle super-thin and deformed small houses.

Ly Chi Hong from the municipal Department of Construction said in the site clearance for new projects, land plots which are ineligible for construction would be bought from the owners to prevent the appearance of deformed houses. — VNS