New regulations on housing development in the capital from January 1, 2025

1. New regulations on housing development in the capital from January 1, 2025

According to Article 29 of the 2024 Capital Law, housing development in the Capital is regulated as follows:

- The housing development program and plan in the City must be consistent with the Capital Planning and the Capital's General Planning; prioritize investment in the construction of urban areas, housing, and independent social housing areas in a modern, convenient direction, synchronous with the construction of urban technical infrastructure and social infrastructure.

- The development of social housing in the City is carried out according to the following regulations:

+ The detailed planning task is established at the same time as the detailed planning project and the organization of collecting opinions from relevant communities at the same time; the appraisal and approval of the detailed planning task must be carried out in advance, as a basis for the appraisal and approval of the detailed planning project;

+ The City People's Council decides to use the City budget to invest in the construction of framework technical infrastructure works and essential social infrastructure in independent social housing construction investment projects.

- In case the investor of the project to renovate and rebuild the apartment building cannot be selected according to the provisions of the law on housing, the City People's Committee shall decide to reclaim the apartment building land, compensate, support, resettle and organize an auction of land use rights after having the consent of two-thirds or more of the total number of house owners and land users within the project boundary.

The amount of money collected from the auction of land use rights is greater than the amount spent on compensation, support and resettlement, which continues to be divided and paid to each homeowner and land user.

- The City People's Council prescribes mechanisms, policies, preferential measures and support for housing development projects and accommodation arranged for workers working in high-tech zones and industrial zones in the City.

2. Regulations on environmental protection in the Capital from January 1, 2025

Environmental protection in the Capital is specifically regulated in Article 28 of the Capital Law 2024 as follows:

- Management and protection of the capital's environment are carried out according to the principles of sustainable development, circular economic development and proactive response to climate change associated with maintaining the natural elements, biodiversity, culture and history of the capital; ensuring the proportion of green space according to the plan.

- The City People's Council has the following responsibilities:

+ Regulate criteria, conditions, order and procedures for determining low emission zones; decide on the scope of low emission zones and measures applied in the zones according to a suitable roadmap;

+ Decide on policies to support organizations and individuals in converting vehicles from using fossil fuels to using clean energy; prescribe measures to limit the use of vehicles that emit pollutants; support investment in developing transport infrastructure using clean energy;

+ Regulate measures to support the relocation of production facilities in residential areas, production facilities in industries and occupations that are not encouraged to develop in rural craft villages;

+ Regulate measures to reduce plastic emissions in production, business, service and daily life activities in the City; prescribe support and incentive measures for waste treatment, production, business, service and consumption activities related to waste recycling using the best available techniques.

See also The Capital Law 2024 takes effect from January 1, 2025, except for the following provisions which take effect from July 1, 2025:

- Management and use of underground space are stipulated in Article 19 of the 2024 Capital Law;

- The establishment of commercial and cultural development zones is stipulated in Clause 7, Article 21 of the 2024 Capital Law;

- Development of science and technology, innovation, and digital transformation as prescribed in Article 23 of the 2024 Capital Law;

- Controlled testing is prescribed in Article 25 of the Capital Law 2024;

- Implementation of the construction - transfer contract is stipulated in Article 40 of the Capital Law 2024.