Summary of Construction Policies Effective from August 15

1. Construction projects must organize architectural design competitions

According to Circular 13/2016/TT-BXD (effective from August 15, 2016) guiding the organization of competitions and selection for architectural design options for construction projects, the projects must organize competitions and selections include:

- Public buildings of grade I, special grade;- Headquarters of Communist Party, State agencies, administrative-political centers, broadcasting, television centers;- Provincial central railway stations, civil aviation airports;- Urban traffic projects from grade II or higher with high aesthetic requirements (river-crossing bridges, overpasses, urban railway stations);- Projects with important locations, high architectural requirements (monument projects, urban landmarks);- Projects of significant importance in urban areas and on main streets as determined in construction planning projects, urban design plans, and urban planning and architecture management regulations approved by the competent authority.

2. New regulations on construction permit application dossiers

From August 15, 2016, Circular 15/2016/TT-BXD will take effect, the application dossier for construction permit will have some new points:

- Copies of documents such as certificates of land use rights, land recovery decisions, technical design drawings or construction drawing designs, investment project approval decisions, etc., do not require notarization or certification.- It is possible to use files containing scanned originals of documents instead of copies;- The application dossier for phased construction permit and project no longer includes copies of Business Registration Certificates or Investment Certificates;- The application dossier for separate house construction permits will be commonly used for both urban and rural areas (the current regulation separates the two cases) and must include the investor's commitment to ensure safety when constructing adjacent projects.

3. Guidelines for arranging resettlement housing when the apartment building is demolished

Circular 21/2016/TT-BXD guiding the implementation of Decree 101/2015/ND-CP on renovation and reconstruction of old apartment buildings (effective from August 15, 2016) states that the signing of contracts for renting, purchasing, and selling resettlement housing (RTH) when the apartment building is demolished is carried out as follows:

- Apartment owners without demand for on-site resettlement: follow Decree 99/2015/ND-CP and guiding circulars (for existing housing); Decree 76/2015/ND-CP (for housing formed in the future);- Apartment owners with demand for on-site resettlement:- In case of compensation by housing and on-site resettlement, the apartment owner signs a contract with the investor or the unit assigned to arrange resettlement;- In case of resettlement arrangement in rental form, implementation will follow Decree No. 99/2015 and the guiding circulars;- In case the person arranged for resettlement is eligible to purchase an additional apartment as per clause 3, Article 4 of Decree 101/2015, implementation follows Decree 76/2015.

4. Increasing the minimum area of social housing rooms to 10 m²

This content is stipulated in Circular 20/2016/TT-BXD guiding the implementation of Decree 100/2015/ND-CP on the development and management of social housing, effective from August 15, 2016.

Individuals or households investing in the construction for selling, leasing, or lease-purchasing must ensure the usable area of the housing room is not smaller than 10 m² (an increase of 1m² from the previous regulation).

5. Criteria for scoring and evaluating the approval of social housing rental, lease-purchase

According to Circular 19/2016/TT-BXD guiding the implementation of Housing Law and Decree 99/2015/ND-CP, the selection of subjects eligible for renting, lease-purchasing state-owned social housing is implemented following Article 49, Article 51 of the Housing Law and Article 14 of this Circular.

In cases where the social housing fund is not sufficient to arrange for all subjects eligible for renting, lease-purchasing, the selection is through the scoring method with a maximum score of 100, those with higher total scores will be prioritized for renting, lease-purchasing first.

See detailed selection criteria in Circular 19/2016/TT-BXD effective from August 15, 2016.

6. Circular 12/2016/TT-BXD stipulates the dossiers for the tasks and planning projects of construction regions, urban planning, and planning of special functional zones.
7. Circular 14/2016/TT-BXD guides the issuance of construction activity permits and the management of foreign contractors operating construction in Vietnam.
8. Circular 16/2016/TT-BXD guides the implementation of Decree 59/2015/ND-CP on the forms of project management organization for construction investment.
9. Circular 18/2016/TT-BXD guides the appraisal and approval of projects and the design, estimation of construction works.

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