Despite being completed in 2017, three resettlement apartment blocks on Tan Mai Street in Hoang Mai District remain unoccupied.

The high-rise buildings show visible signs of neglect, including mold, overgrown weeds, and crumbling infrastructure, giving the appearance of abandoned ‘ghost houses.’

Another resettlement project, N01, in Cau Giay District – a prime location home to many financial firms and tech companies – was approved in 2009 but remains unfinished.

Several structures at the site are deteriorating, with only partial construction completed.

Similar conditions can be found at a student housing complex in the Phap Van-Tu Hiep area of Hoang Mai District.

Initiated in 2009, many of the buildings are still incomplete, with only the structural framework in place in some blocks, while others are stuck in the finishing phase.

As of the end of 2024, Hanoi had seen 174 public resettlement housing projects.

However, roughly 2,500 units across nine of these projects have yet to be put into use, raising concerns about long-standing waste and inefficiency.

At a recent meeting on the real estate market, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha instructed local authorities to review all completed but unused resettlement and commercial housing projects and consider converting them into social housing to avoid further waste.

Ha also emphasized the need for localities to actively prepare land banks for social housing development, in addition to the legally mandated 20 percent allocation from commercial housing projects, to address imbalances where some areas face shortages while others have surpluses.

For the long-stalled student housing project in Phap Van-Tu Hiep, the Ministry of Construction has formally requested that Hanoi authorities expedite its conversion into social housing to prevent continued losses and underutilization.