At present, there are still a lot of companies using apartments for their offices. Most of them are located in urban areas such as Trung Hoa – Nhan Chinh, My Dinh, Thanh Xuan, Me Tri and so on.
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| Companies are utilising urban areas for offices |
It has been 4 months since the Ministry of Construction issued a document requesting that 5 cities including Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Hai Phong, Da Nang, Nghe An and Thanh Hoa suspend using apartments for offices. However, the implementation hasn’t been effective in Hanoi, according to our research.
At the Trung Yen urban area, each apartment building has several office apartments. The Vinaconex building has 5 offices. There are many more in buildings at Yen Hoa – Trung Hoa Nhan Chinh areas. Most of them are limited and joint stock companies.
Nguyen Va Chien, a manager, said that his company has only 20 employees. He knows very well about the new policy from the Ministry of Construction but he hasn’t found any suitable new office space yet.
Our survey revealed that most companies are aware of the decision but they disregard it.
Nguyen Van Linh, a staff member for a communications company at My Dinh said that he found many other companies still use their apartments as working spaces. A ban is a ban but implementing it is another story.
Talking to DTiNews about management and the usage of apartments and houses, managers of the buildings admitted that there is no regulation which does not allow people to hire apartments and he has no right to interfere with how they will use them.
An official in the Construction Industry also believed that there are difficulties in implementing the policy.
The industry is dealing with procedures to lessen difficulties of small companies who are forced to move into new offices.
At present, top grade office leasing prices have gone down compared with several months ago. The price is $20-50 per square meter per month depending on locations and areas.
On February 10, the Ministry of Construction sent a document requesting the People’s Committees of provinces and city's report on the implementation results of the policy so they can determine how to proceed.
