Need a mechanism to strictly control the selling price and rental price of social housing

According to the delegates, the issuance of the Resolution is necessary to promptly institutionalize the Party's policies on social housing development, remove difficulties and create a clear legal corridor to attract businesses to participate. Reducing administrative procedures and having clear incentive policies will encourage investors to participate more strongly in this field.

The delegates said that the current reality shows that the progress of the implementation of the 1 million social housing project is still slow and has not met expectations. Therefore, the draft Resolution is an important and fundamental step to promote the social housing development program in the coming time.

Delegates agreed with the eight specific policy mechanisms outlined in the draft, such as: establishing a National Housing Fund; assigning investors without bidding; establishing, appraising and approving detailed plans; simplifying investment procedures; determining selling prices and lease-purchase prices; determining conditions for enjoying policies; renting social housing through enterprises, cooperatives and public agencies; compensation, resettlement support and infrastructure investment to create land funds.

However, the delegates paid attention to the content on determining the selling price and rental price of social housing (Article 8). Through research, the delegates found that the provisions in Article 8 still have inappropriate points, are contradictory and may be difficult to implement in practice.

Specifically, Clause 1, Article 8 of the draft stipulates: "The investor shall construct by himself, hire a qualified consultant to conduct the appraisal before the investor approves the selling price or lease-purchase price of social housing". Meanwhile, Clause 3 of the same article stipulates: "In case the selling price or lease-purchase price of social housing according to the audit or settlement is higher than the selling price or lease-purchase price signed by the investor, no additional collection shall be allowed; if it is lower, the difference must be refunded".

The delegate pointed out that the draft, on the one hand, empowers investors to determine prices, review and approve them themselves without any price control mechanism before signing the contract. This could create unfairness in access to information, putting people at a disadvantage, unable to evaluate or compare with standard prices from state agencies.

On the other hand, it is very difficult to request a refund of the difference if the actual price after the audit is lower than the contract price. When the project has been put into use, residents have moved in, and the contract has been executed, the refund is not only complicated in terms of procedures but also easily avoided, delayed or prolonged, affecting the rights of the people. In many localities, the reality has shown that investors often find ways to not pay or delay the refund after settlement, while people have no mechanism to claim back the damage.

The delegate also commented that the above regulation gives the investor full power to determine the price but does not include the obligation to control it publicly and transparently. The selling price and the rental price do not need to be submitted to the state agency, there is no standard price list, no comparison system, making people completely passive.

Meanwhile, social housing projects are enjoying many great incentives in terms of land, finance, tax, infrastructure, etc. Therefore, determining selling prices and lease-purchase prices must be associated with clear and transparent accountability and certain supervision from the State.

National Assembly delegates of Binh Thuan province work at the Group on the morning of May 21

From there, delegate Nguyen Huu Thong proposed to amend and supplement Article 8 in the direction of: Classifying projects to apply appropriate pricing mechanisms; adding the obligation to publicize price structures: investors must list selling prices, lease-purchase prices with a detailed table of component costs, standard profits, and incentives for people and authorities to monitor together; Provincial People's Committees need to develop a standard price list as a basis for comparison with the prices proposed by investors; more strictly regulate the responsibility for refunding price differences after auditing; apply digital technology to monitor pricing.

“We can design specific mechanisms, but at the same time we need to design effective control mechanisms. Otherwise, it will be easy for abuse, negativity, and vested interests to occur, which will go against the policy goals,” the delegate emphasized.

Source: https://baobinhthuan.com.vn/can-co-che-kiem-soat-chat-che-gia-ban-gia-thue-mua-nha-o-xa-hoi-130386.html