Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha chaired a meeting to resolve planning issues for social housing projects.

Photo caption — Deputy Minister of Construction Nguyen Van Sinh reports at the meeting. Photo: Van Diep/VNA

According to the report of the Ministry of Construction, up to now, the whole country has 696 social housing projects being implemented with a scale of 637,048 units. Of which, 128,648 units have been completed, 123,057 units are under construction, and 358,343 units have been approved for investment. Localities have planned about 1,427 locations with an area of about 9,830 hectares of land for social housing.

During the implementation process, the Ministry of Construction has worked with ministries, branches and localities to develop a draft Resolution of the Government on a number of special mechanisms to handle difficulties and obstacles in social housing development in order to speed up progress and shorten the investment time for construction of social housing projects; create a complete, synchronous and unified legal corridor, remove difficulties and obstacles in construction and development of social housing; create more preferential mechanisms to attract businesses to participate in investment in construction of social housing...

At the meeting, representatives of ministries, branches and localities discussed the main contents of the draft Resolution, including: Establishing and approving social housing project planning; adding priority subjects to buy social housing; choosing to apply legal regulations of investors in granting construction permits.

Specifically, according to the draft Resolution, in case an investor proposes a social housing construction investment project on land that has been planned as residential land, but does not have a zoning plan or detailed plan, the Provincial People's Committee is empowered to proactively decide in advance on important land use planning indicators, from which the investor can proceed to prepare and approve a 1/500 detailed plan to immediately implement the next steps of the project. Higher-level plans (zoning plans, general plans) will be updated synchronously afterward.

However, opinions at the meeting said that detailed planning for social housing projects must be carried out in the correct order from general planning, zoning planning, detailed planning, and not in the reverse order.

In order to shorten the time to prepare for investment in social housing projects, the representative of the Hanoi Department of Construction proposed to add regulations allowing the simultaneous implementation of steps of establishing, appraising, approving, and adjusting zoning plans and detailed plans.

Regarding the policy of adding priority subjects to buy or hire-purchase social housing for households and individuals whose land has been recovered or who have agreed to transfer land use rights to project investors to develop social housing or housing for the people's armed forces, without having to draw lots and without having to meet housing and income conditions as prescribed, Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Bac Ninh province Pham Van Thinh proposed to expand the subjects to households and individuals whose agricultural land or production land has been recovered to build social housing projects.

The Draft Resolution also proposes that social housing project investors are allowed to choose to apply the regulations on granting construction permits in Resolution No. 201/2025/QH15 of the National Assembly on piloting a number of specific mechanisms and policies for social housing development or at Point c, Clause 1, Article 56 of the Railway Law No. 95/2025/QH15 amending and supplementing Point h, Clause 2, Article 89 of the Construction Law on regulations on works exempted from construction permits.

Notably, opinions at the meeting suggested that the Ministry of Construction reconsider the proposal to develop social housing as individual housing and assign the provincial People's Committee to base on specific local conditions to submit to the provincial People's Council for regulations, except for centrally-run cities and areas within the administrative boundaries of provincial wards.

Concluding the meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha requested the Ministry of Construction to receive and complete the draft Resolution with two main contents: Mechanism for establishing and adjusting detailed planning for social housing projects; supplementing subjects eligible to buy social housing.

Accordingly, for social housing projects that have been approved for investment but do not have detailed planning or zoning plans, the zoning plans and detailed planning must be prepared, appraised and approved at the same time, with the requirement to ensure consistency between planning levels and clearly define the responsibilities of the approving agencies. This mechanism aims to solve difficulties in the implementation of social housing projects, especially the adjustment of planning when there are changes in height, land use coefficient and related indicators.

Regarding the regulation to add subjects to buy social housing who are people whose residential land, production land or houses are recovered when implementing social housing projects, the Deputy Prime Minister said that this content is beyond the law, therefore, it must be reported to the competent authority before submitting to the Government for consideration and decision.

The Deputy Prime Minister agreed that construction permits should not be abolished. Instead, procedures including investment policy, environment, fire prevention and fighting, and construction permit issuance will be integrated into one set of documents to issue one permit; and must fully ensure criteria on safety, construction quality, environment, and fire prevention and fighting.

Regarding social housing, the Deputy Prime Minister requested compliance with the provisions of the 2023 Housing Law and detailed planning in determining social housing types.

The development of social housing prioritizes high-rise apartment models, ensuring synchronous technical and social infrastructure and meeting planning standards. In special cases, if the social housing project is implemented in a commune in an ethnic minority or mountainous area according to the Prime Minister's regulations, it can be built in the form of individual houses.

Giving directions on simplifying the process and procedures for approving the purchase of social housing, the Deputy Prime Minister requested the development of a simple, clear and easy-to-implement dossier. The agency managing cadres, civil servants, public employees and armed forces shall confirm the conditions of employees according to its authority and be responsible for the content of the confirmation.

The Department of Construction compiles a list of eligible people and sends it to the investor to organize a public draw to ensure transparency. The application for social housing is valid for 1 year. After the deadline, people who want to buy social housing can reapply with simpler procedures.

Source: https://baotintuc.vn/thoi-su/pho-thu-tuong-tran-hong-ha-chu-tri-hop-thao-go-quy-hoach-du-an-nha-o-xa-hoi-20251208221330978.htm