'There are low-income people who can only afford to rent social housing'

According to Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) Nguyen Thi Hong, it is necessary to clearly identify the target groups, needs and support capabilities; at the same time, ensure that credit capital for loans to buy and hire-purchase social housing is circulated quickly, safely and on target.

Governor Nguyen Thi Hong emphasized that diversifying capital sources helps reduce pressure on the banking system and implement Directive 40 of the Secretariat on strengthening the Party's leadership over social policy credit. Photo: Duong Giang/VNA

Review the right needs and the right level of support

The State Bank of Vietnam and ministries and sectors are coordinating to review and assess the demand for social housing in three main groups: demand for purchase, hire purchase and rental housing. Determining specific demand helps the State balance resources and avoid spreading them out.

In addition, according to Ms. Nguyen Thi Hong, it is necessary to clearly determine the level of support that can be implemented. The Government and the Prime Minister have strongly directed financial support through preferential interest rate policies. However, careful calculations must be made to ensure priority is given to the right subjects.

"Low-income earners often only have the ability to rent a house, instead of buying or leasing, so policies need to focus on this segment. Interest rate support policies need to be designed flexibly, suitable for payment ability and long-term loan terms," ​​Ms. Nguyen Thi Hong gave an example.

The issue of social housing supply has always been a concern of the leaders of the State Bank as well as many financial and real estate experts. "If we only discuss the subjects or the right to buy and sell, without solving the supply, the Resolution (New Resolution on breakthrough development of social housing) will lack focus, it is necessary to clearly define the goal of developing social housing supply", said the Governor of the State Bank.

Construction procedures need to be shortened as much as possible.

In reality, many projects take 10-15 years to complete procedures. This causes businesses to incur long-term interest costs, reducing investment efficiency. Banks that mobilize capital from people still have to pay periodic interest, and cannot "wait" for the project to be completed.

Therefore, according to the State Bank leader, if the procedure is shortened to 2-3 years, bank capital will circulate faster, helping many projects qualify for credit access.

In the new draft Resolution, the main solutions have been clearly stated as: Arranging land funds, approving and publicizing project lists, approving investment policies and promoting administrative procedure reform. Another problem according to Governor Nguyen Thi Hong is the confirmation of the correct subjects eligible for loans to buy or rent social housing. Banks need clear confirmation documents to lend, while local confirmation agencies are still lacking in consistency. Therefore, the State Bank of Vietnam recommends that the confirmation process needs to be completed to avoid overlap and prolong the review time.

In particular, the new Resolution assigns the State Bank to direct commercial banks to participate in the VND120,000 billion credit package (currently increased to VND145,000 billion). "This capital is mobilized from the people, the preferential interest rate in the initial period is also balanced by the banks themselves. In addition, there needs to be a specific project list from localities for banks to quickly disburse, because many businesses are still stuck with land allocation procedures," said Governor Nguyen Thi Hong.

In addition, experts also proposed diversifying socialized capital sources. Accordingly, enterprises developing NOXN can completely mobilize capital through the stock market. However, due to the long-term nature of the project and the beneficiaries being low-income people, individual investors are less interested in buying corporate bonds in this field.

Therefore, according to the SBV leader, Vietnam can consider a mechanism to guarantee bond issuance by the State or local authorities. If the locality clearly sees the social benefits of the project, it can guarantee the bond issuance by the enterprise, thereby creating trust for buyers and helping the enterprise mobilize medium and long-term capital, not completely dependent on bank credit.

Previously, at the meeting to discuss breakthrough development of social housing chaired by Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, Head of the Central Steering Committee on housing policy and real estate market, Mr. Dau Minh Thanh, Chairman of the Board of Members of the Housing and Urban Development Corporation (HUD) affirmed: "We are ready to carry out 3 'assignments' including: the Government and the Ministry of Construction assign tasks, localities assign locations, and businesses deliver houses".

Mr. Dau Minh Thanh, Chairman of the Board of Members of Housing and Urban Development Corporation (HUD).

According to Mr. Dau Minh Thanh, HUD is implementing 9 social housing projects with more than 6,600 apartments. In 2025, HUD started 5 projects with 1,300 apartments, mainly concentrated in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. It is expected that by 2030, based on exploiting land for development in commercial projects, HUD plans to develop 1 million social apartments, equivalent to more than 9,000 apartments.

“We also recommend that Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City pay close attention to directing and speeding up the processes and procedures to help investors quickly implement projects. In addition, HUD also recommends that ministries, branches and localities implement solutions to help people easily access information, shorten the process and procedures for home purchase documents so that social housing can soon reach people,” Mr. Dau Minh Thanh suggested.

At a recent conference with ministries, branches, localities and businesses on breakthrough solutions for social housing development, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh directed that it is necessary to create the most favorable conditions for social housing projects to be completed within 2-3 years.

The Prime Minister emphasized that it is necessary to cut at least 50% of administrative procedures, put social housing projects into the "green channel" and "priority channel" groups to complete procedures quickly and promptly; create clean land funds for social housing development in a flexible manner; diversify capital sources for social housing development including credit capital, State capital through the Bank for Social Policies, Housing Development Fund, bond issuance, etc.

The Prime Minister requested that localities must have regulations and be responsible for quickly, neatly, and accurately resolving administrative procedures for social housing development, following the motto "locality decides, locality acts, locality takes responsibility"; ensuring the legitimacy of people and businesses, while ensuring legal discipline.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh noted that policies and implementation of social housing policies must be most favorable for social housing buyers, ensuring publicity and transparency, promoting digitalization, and not allowing home buyers to "jostle and run" to buy, which can easily lead to negativity and policy distortion.

At the same time, the Prime Minister requested to diversify credit sources for real estate in general and social housing in particular, and to establish a Social Housing Fund instead of relying solely on bank credit sources.

Source: https://baotintuc.vn/kinh-te/co-nhung-nguoi-thu-nhap-thap-chi-co-kha-nang-thue-nha-o-xa-hoi-20251025145302394.htm