The target of 1 million social housing units is still far away.

The target of 1 million social housing units is still far away.

Recently, the Secretariat issued Directive No. 34-CT/TW on strengthening the Party's leadership in the development of social housing in the new situation, emphasizing the need to prioritize land allocation and capital sources to develop social housing and workers' housing, and promote the socialization of capital sources for social housing development.

Directive 34 once again affirms that our Party and State always pay attention to the development of housing for people, especially social housing. The Resolution of the 13th National Party Congress and the 10-year socio -economic development strategy 2021-2030 have mentioned many contents to ensure equal access to housing for citizens and develop social housing.

Meanwhile, last year, the Prime Minister issued Decision No. 388/QD-TTg approving the Project "Investing in the construction of at least 1 million social housing apartments for low-income earners and industrial park workers in the period 2021 - 2030" - Since the beginning of the year, the Government has also held many meetings on social housing.

The goal of 1 million social housing units is still very far away. — The target of 1 million units is still far away and the time until 2030 is getting shorter and shorter. (Photo: ST)

As of May 2024, the Government and the Prime Minister have paid great attention and issued 40 related documents directing the implementation of the Project to build at least 1 million social housing apartments. Regarding credit for the implementation of the Project, there have been 14 documents.

Mr. Chu Duc Tam, Executive Committee Member of the Vietnam Industrial Park Finance Association (VIPFA), said that the government's goal is to have 130,000 social housing apartments by 2024 and at least 1 million social housing apartments by 2030.

To date, 503 social housing projects have been implemented nationwide with a scale of 418,200 units (an increase of 4 projects and 6,950 units compared to the reporting time on March 15, 2024).

Of which, the whole country has just completed 75 projects with a scale of 39,884 units (an increase of 3 projects, 1,756 units compared to the reporting time on March 15, 2024). The number of projects that have started construction is 128 projects with a scale of 115,379 units. The number of projects that have been approved for investment policy is 300 projects with a scale of 262,937 units (there are 4 projects, 5,919 units newly approved).

"So the target of 1 million units is still very far away and the time until 2030 is getting shorter and shorter," Mr. Tam emphasized.

According to Mr. Chu Duc Tam, in large provinces and cities with many industrial parks such as Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang, Can Tho, Long An... the rate of social housing is low compared to the Project's target.

"Even Ho Chi Minh City set a target of building 35,000 social housing units in the 2021-2025 period, but so far only one project has been completed, the remaining 34 projects are either under construction or have not been implemented," said Mr. Tam.

Social housing is not given any priority over commercial housing.

Analyzing the reasons for the current low supply of social housing, Mr. Tam said: First of all, it must be seen that social housing has almost no breakthrough compared to commercial housing. In particular, social housing is not given more priority than commercial housing. The legal framework and procedures for social housing and commercial housing are the same and to some extent, social housing procedures are more difficult.

To implement social housing, in addition to general procedures such as planning approval, investment policy approval, bidding to select investors; land allocation, land lease, social housing projects also require additional procedures for confirming subjects eligible to buy and rent social housing; procedures for appraising selling prices and rental prices of social housing. Therefore, the implementation of procedures for implementing social housing takes a long time.

Therefore, Mr. Chu Duc Tam believes that in order for low-income people to have housing and for industrial park workers to settle down, the Government needs to review procedures and processes to reduce project approval time.

According to Mr. Tam, the planning of social housing and the arrangement of social housing projects in locations with convenient transportation, connected to industrial centers, with adequate technical infrastructure and essential social infrastructure. Especially around industrial parks and industrial clusters, it is necessary to arrange land funds to build housing for workers.

In fact, there is a situation where low-income people in social housing areas are not eligible to buy social housing. Also because social housing is too far from the workplace, workers either do not buy, or if they have bought, the housing is too far from the workplace, so they transfer, hand over, and accept to rent in poor quality housing areas closer to the workplace.

In addition, the Government needs to bring preferential policies for purchasing social housing to the right addresses, which are workers and low-income laborers. In addition, land funds should be allocated to develop social housing around industrial parks to ensure easy access for investors... Currently, social housing investment enterprises are facing difficulties in accessing land.

In addition to shortening the time for project appraisal and approval, cutting down procedures and barriers to developing social housing, to build workers' housing, state agencies need to promote social housing planning associated with industrial centers and worker housing near industrial parks, synchronizing technical infrastructure and social infrastructure.

The issue of preferential interest rates for investors, builders, social housing buyers and procedures to receive these incentives also need to be more open.

"The government has implemented a preferential credit package of 120 trillion VND to support social housing development, but the disbursement process of this credit package is still slow," said Mr. Tam.

According to Resolution No. 33/NQ-CP dated March 11, 2023 of the Government, the Ministry of Construction has reformed administrative procedures, adjusted and shortened the conditions for social housing project investors to borrow capital of VND 120,000 billion. To date, commercial banks have only disbursed VND 1,144 billion, including VND 1,133 billion for investors in 11 projects; VND 11 billion for home buyers in 4 projects.

"It seems that preferential credit only reaches investors, while low-income people are difficult to access. Therefore, to give low-income people the opportunity to own a house, we should expand the preferential loan program for individuals and households to buy, rent, and lease-purchase social housing according to the social housing policy and the preferential interest rate is 3-5% lower than normal commercial loans," Mr. Tam emphasized.

Source: https://www.congluan.vn/muc-tieu-1-trieu-can-nha-o-xa-hoi-con-rat-xa-post297829.html