Social housing: Solutions from supply, capital and implementation mechanism

(Chinhphu.vn) - The development of social housing does not stop at policy but needs to be effectively implemented from the central to local levels. It is necessary to clearly identify the target groups, needs and support capabilities, while ensuring that credit flows are circulated quickly, safely and on target.

Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam Nguyen Thi Hong speaks - Photo: VGP/Nhat Bac

This is the opinion of the State Bank leader at the Conference with ministries, branches, localities and enterprises on breakthrough solutions for social housing development chaired by Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh on October 24 in Hanoi .

Clearly identify support needs and capabilities

Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam Nguyen Thi Hong said: 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. This is the foundation for planning appropriate support policies for each target group.

First of all, identifying specific needs helps the State balance resources and avoid spreading them out. In addition, it is necessary to clearly define the level of support that can be provided. 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.

"There are people with low incomes who can only afford to rent a house, instead of buying or leasing, so policies need to focus on this segment. At the same time, interest rate support policies need to be designed flexibly, suitable for payment ability and long-term loan terms," ​​the SBV leader gave an example.

The Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam said: The development of social housing does not stop at policy but must be effectively implemented in the implementation stage. If only discussing the subjects or the right to buy and sell without solving the supply, the resolution will lack focus and needs to clearly define the goal of developing the supply of social housing.

Speed ​​up procedures, facilitate capital flow

The draft resolution clearly outlines key solutions, such as land allocation, project list approval and disclosure, investment policy approval, and administrative procedure reform promotion. These have been directed by the Government for many years, but the most important thing is how they are implemented at all levels.

Meanwhile, 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 complete. Therefore, if the procedures are shortened to 2-3 years, the bank capital flow will rotate faster, helping many projects qualify for credit access.

Another problem is the identification of the right subjects to borrow money to buy or rent social housing. Banks need clear identification documents to lend, while local identification agencies lack consistency. Therefore, it is necessary to complete the identification process to avoid overlap and prolong the approval time.

In particular, the new resolution assigns the State Bank to direct commercial banks to participate in the VND120,000 billion credit package (now 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.

Next, in addition to the commercial credit channel, another important channel is through the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies (VBSP). The state budget is combined with additional capital mobilized from the VBSP, to provide loans to buyers or renters of social housing. When the procedures are completed, disbursement will be more convenient.

However, long-term lending may cause liquidity difficulties for the Social Policy Bank, as the mobilized capital is often short-term. Therefore, it is necessary to have additional capital from the budget or issue government-guaranteed bonds. This is an important solution to ensure the stability of long-term capital flows, serving the right social security goals.

In addition, experts also proposed diversifying socialized capital sources. Accordingly, social housing development enterprises 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, it is possible to consider the mechanism of guaranteeing bond issuance by the State or local authorities. If the locality clearly sees the social benefits of the project, it can guarantee the enterprise to issue bonds, thereby creating trust for buyers and helping enterprises mobilize medium- and long-term capital without depending entirely on bank credit.

"Diversifying capital sources not only helps reduce pressure on the banking system but also contributes to implementing the policy in Directive 40 of the Secretariat on strengthening the Party's leadership over social policy credit. This is a long-term, sustainable direction, helping to solve the growing demand for social housing, while promoting the goal of social security and sustainable development," the Governor of the State Bank emphasized.

Mr. Minh

Source: https://baochinhphu.vn/nha-o-xa-hoi-giai-phap-tu-nguon-cung-von-va-co-che-trien-khai-102251024153914405.htm