The Ministry of Construction has recently proposed that all buildings with a height of 100-150 meters upwards must have evacuation floors that accommodate no apartment or office. There must be an evacuation floor for every 20 floors.

The Ho Chi Minh City Real Estate Association (HoREA) says although such a regulation is needed to protect building residents in case a fire breaks out, it needs to be more specific.

A 100-150 meter tall building usually has 30-50 storeys, and designating one or two of these to be evacuation floors will reduce the number of apartments in the building and increase their prices.

Le Hoang Chau, chairman of the association, told
VnExpress
that given rising real estate prices in recent years, the regulation could add to the financial burden of home buyers.

He said this issue can be solved by not adding the floor acreage and height of the evacuation floors into the building’s total. This means that developers could build an additional normal floor for each evacuation floor without worrying about exceeding the number of floors or the maximum height allowed.

There is currently no building in Vietnam with a dedicated evacuation floor, according to the association.