Retired and retired people have difficulty buying social housing

According to the Vietnam Association of Realtors (VARs), social housing has been a topic that has attracted much public attention over the past period. This is considered a lifeline segment for the dream of settling down for people with average incomes. However, to realize this dream, efforts and determination from many sides are still needed.

Recently, the new legal corridor, especially the Housing Law 2023, has added much hope to the development of the social housing segment. Many problems with investors and policy beneficiaries have been resolved.

Retired and retired people face difficulties when buying social housing. (Photo: ST)

For example, regarding the beneficiaries of the policy. Expanding the group of beneficiaries of the social housing policy, raising the maximum income to 15 million VND/person/month, removing the regulation on household registration... has contributed to making the conditions for enjoying the social housing policy "easier to breathe" for people who need to access this segment.

However, there are some notes that still need to be open, so that the opportunity to own social housing is truly more "open" to suitable groups of people.

Specifically, current regulations only provide general regulations, without applying additional regulations specific to each group of subjects for each project.

VARs believe that social housing for workers should not be regulated. This makes it difficult for both investors and residents to access. For investors of industrial park projects, it is necessary to arrange land funds to develop housing areas for workers to rent.

In addition, VARs believe that current regulations should be reviewed to only stipulate the maximum income level to enjoy social housing policies, not the minimum income level.

Currently, there are seasonal workers who are paid hourly with low incomes who are also disqualified by the Department of Construction for the reason that "their income is lower than the minimum wage for workers working under labor contracts as prescribed in Decree No. 74/2024/ND-CP dated June 30, 2024".

VARs recommends reviewing the target groups eligible for social housing policies. Ensure consistency in all legal documents. Currently, there are still some discrepancies, causing difficulties in the application of the law.

For example: Among all the subjects entitled to social housing support policies in Article 76 of the Housing Law, there are no subjects who have retired or have retired from the regime, but the application forms in the appendix of Circular No. 05/2024/TT-BXD include this subject. Therefore, many local Departments of Construction do not know how to handle this case.

Regarding the quality and price of social housing, VARs said that many people are still concerned that social housing is cheap housing for low-income people. Therefore, the quality of social housing will also be low and lack amenities.

In order to change this concept of social housing, VARs believe that it is necessary to set common standards for social housing projects, ensuring the quality of social housing projects. Avoid creating substandard projects that quickly deteriorate, negatively affecting the quality of people's lives.

At the same time, it is necessary to supplement management regulations for social housing, either separately or based on regulations for apartment buildings in general. In addition, it is also necessary to consider the implementation plan for large-scale social housing projects, in order to save costs and help reduce prices.

“In addition, we should also consider developing low-rise social housing projects in some localities to suit actual needs,” VARs recommended.

Dinh Tran