Solving social housing difficulties

Recommendations for improving social housing policy

Continue to apply the loan interest rate for buyers and renters of social housing at 4.8%/year instead of 5.4% as in the draft, to create conditions for middle and low income people to access social housing. This is one of the recommendations of the Ho Chi Minh City Real Estate Association (HoREA), contributing comments to the draft amendment to the Decree on social housing.

At the same time, the Association believes that the competent authority to decide on interest rates should be the State Bank instead of the Social Policy Bank to ensure consistency in management. In addition, the Association also proposes to allow the Social Policy Bank to soon implement loans for investors of social housing projects, instead of waiting until after 2030.

Removing obstacles for social housing buyers

Removing credit difficulties for social housing buyers is very necessary. Because, according to recorded information, many social housing projects in Hanoi only have a few hundred units, but currently, the number of prepared documents has reached thousands. This will be a significant pressure in the upcoming social housing purchase lottery. Meanwhile, in some other localities, although the supply of social housing has been quite abundant, many people in the low-income bracket, but find it difficult to buy social housing, due to the constraints of standards.

To buy social housing, people must prove their income, not exceeding 15 million VND/month for individuals, 30 million VND/month for households. In addition, buyers must also carry out procedures to verify assets and residence. This leads to the situation: Social housing is not accessible enough, high-priced houses are out of reach. Many solutions are being proposed.

Recently, the Ministry of Construction has proposed to raise the income criteria for buying social housing to 20 million VND/month for single people, 40 million VND/month for couples. Or Hanoi City has recently proposed to reduce the loan interest rate for social housing buyers to 4.8%/year, to better support home buyers. This will make it easier for those who want to buy social housing to access.

Mr. Nghiem Quoc Huy - Hanoi City said: "My current income is over 15 million VND. Although it is high, I have to cover a lot of living expenses and other costs."

Mr. Ha Quang Hung - Deputy Director of the Department of Housing and Real Estate Market Management, Ministry of Construction shared: "We will take note and research in the near future to regulate the appropriate income level for the people".

Improving the quality of social housing also needs to be focused on, so that even though it is low-cost housing, it does not put pressure on urban infrastructure for both the present and the future.

Mr. Nguyen Chi Thanh - Vice President of Vietnam Real Estate Brokers Association commented: "We must change the mindset that social housing and housing for low-income people are of low quality. We create conditions to support infrastructure, invest in social housing areas, areas of hundreds of hectares with full amenities: green parks, schools, medical facilities....".

In Hanoi, although there are thousands of apartments from 6 projects that will be opened for sale this year, this number is still considered too small, just like a drop in the ocean. However, according to experts, even though there are few, it is better than nothing, because once social housing projects are launched, they will create a "counterpart" segment to the high-priced houses that are flooding the market today, creating a competitive position that forces investors to recalculate the selling price, if they do not want to face the situation of hanging the selling price high, high forever that buyers cannot reach.

In the meeting of the Central Steering Committee on housing policy and real estate market last week, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh affirmed that developing the real estate market and social housing is a big issue, a major matter of the nation and the people, very important, requiring many comprehensive solutions, such as reducing real estate prices, increasing supply to meet supply and demand, through resolving backlog projects, promoting social housing, reducing land prices, reducing costs, solving infrastructure problems in terms of traffic, electricity, water, telecommunications, etc. In addition, the Ministry of Construction is researching for the Government to issue a resolution, assigning a number of capable, dedicated and talented enterprises to implement a number of social housing projects according to the principle of harmonizing interests between the State, people and enterprises.

Source: https://vtv.vn/go-kho-nha-o-xa-hoi-100250929111225936.htm