On October 29, at a session of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Council, the city People's Committee presented a draft rule setting the minimum housing area for permanent residence registration at 8 square metres of floor space per person for people living in legally rented, borrowed or provided accommodation.
According to the city People's Committee, before the merger, Ho Chi Minh City and the former Binh Duong applied a minimum of 8 square metres per person, while the former Ba Ria Vung Tau applied 10 square metres. This created different requirements within the same city, limited equality in citizens' right to residence and made administrative procedures harder for officials to process.
The city People's Committee said Ho Chi Minh City is a major urban centre with many workers, factory employees, students and migrants. A uniform limit of 8 square metres per person would make it easier for residents, especially factory employees, students, migrant workers and people on low incomes, to register permanent residence at rented, borrowed or provided accommodation.
According to the city People's Committee, the resolution would not create new administrative procedures, document requirements or conditions. Commune-level People's Committees would continue to confirm the housing area, while commune-level police would handle permanent residence registration under the current rules.
For permanent residence applications involving rented, borrowed or provided accommodation that were validly accepted before the resolution takes effect but have not yet been completed, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee proposed that authorities continue processing them under the minimum-area rule in force when the applications were received.
Sources: Thanh Niên
