According to the Housing and Real Estate Market Management Department under the Ministry of Construction, the body which is revising the Law on Housing, the removal was the result of strong public opinion on the issue.

Nguyen Van Manh, a Hanoian living in the Trung Hoa Nhan Chinh apartment building said that the limitation on ownership had been hugely unpopular.

Many of those who are already living in residential apartments registered their concerns that the properties they have bought using their savings would have to be returned to the government after a fixed period.

According to Pham Sy Liem, deputy chairman of the Vietnam Federation of Civil Engineering Association, the Ministry of Construction had aimed to decrease the price of apartments.

Liem said that a regulation insisting that property be forfeited after a number of years would only lead to buyers shunning apartments and choosing to buy houses with no fixed period of ownership.

Liem claimed the regulation would discriminate against residential apartments, saying that the limited period of ownership, if approved, should also be applied to houses as well.

“Despite the government encouraging people in cities to live in apartment buildings, the regulation would have had the opposite effect,” he said. He added that in many other countries apartments were actually given priority because they saved land.

Liem added that the regulation may have emerged from difficulties in re-constructing old buildings, but said it should not add to the current difficulties facing real estate inventories.

However Nguyen Van Duc, deputy director of Dat Lanh Real Estate agreed with the proposal, claiming that the average lifespan of a building should be set at 70 years.

“Reality from other countries like Singapore and China show buildings from 50 to 60 years are demolished and rebuilt, so we should do likewise in Vietnam,” Duc said.

Moreover, Duc said that if the lifespan of apartment buildings was limited to 70 years, the land use tax would be less, and the price of apartments would become more affordable.

Former deputy minister of Natural Resources and Environment Dang Hung Vo said the limitation was a measure to protect the rights of buyers because it can help reduce the price of apartments, solving the housing issue for low-income earners.

However, Vo urged that a detailed roadmap was needed for the regulation.

“The important thing is to change people’s awareness and thinking about buying apartments,” he said, “It’s necessary for them to understand that owning an apartment is for only a limited amount of time and the government should have clear regulations on the people’s rights after they return their old apartments.