Granting of land use certificates known as "red books" has remained stagnant despite the Government's efforts to speed up the project.— Photo thaibinh

HA NOI (Biz Hub)— Granting of land use certificates known as "red books" has remained stagnant despite the Government's efforts to speed up the project.

According to the Government's plan, the red books are to be issued for residential projects in the country, but have stumbled due to a lack of provisions.

Statistics from Ha Noi's Department of Natural Resources and Environment showed that around 90 per cent of the city's residential projects had not been issued red books, despite having completed all required procedures.

In Ha Noi, more than 500,000 apartments had not been granted house ownership certificates, while in the Viet Hung Urban Area, apartments in HUD 3's Happy House Garden project had changed hands with buyers since 2010. Many buyers had completed payment of their respective properties but had still failed to receive ownership certificates.

The chairman of HUD 3, Phan Truong Son, told Dau Tu (Investment) newspaper that a co-investor quit the project while it was underway, causing further difficulties in obtaining red books due to the lack of provisions.

According to deputy director of the Ha Noi Department of Natural Resources and Environment, Nguyen Huu Nghia, the granting of land use rights and house ownership certificates had varied, adding that there had been violations of construction, changes in plans or investors had failed to complete legal documents and payments to the State as required.

In an effort to speed up the granting of land use certificates, Tran Hung Phi, Head of the Registration and Statistics Department under the General Department of Land Administration, said the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment would categorise project issues.

He added violations would be handled but that the rights of home buyers was paramount, estimating that 80 per cent of apartments currently without "red books" in Ha Noi could be granted certificates.

Early last week, the ministry submitted a report on the difficulties of granting red books to the Prime Minister, proposing certificates be granted to project investors who had not completed documents or payments to the State, but were still compliant with master planning requirements.

At the Government's meeting early this month, Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai urged localities to complete the granting of red book by the end of this year. — VNS