Instead of encouragement, many new regulations "tighten" the mechanism to encourage social housing.

On October 24, the Prime Minister issued Official Dispatch 993 on continuing to resolutely implement solutions to develop a safe, healthy, and sustainable real estate market, contributing to promoting socio -economic development.

In this Official Dispatch, the Prime Minister requested to accelerate the implementation of the Project "Investing in the construction of at least 1 million social housing units in the 2021-2030 period", while the Government urged localities to review, plan, and allocate land funds for social housing development.

Regarding the policy of developing social housing, voters in Hanoi said that the provisions in the Housing Law 2014, the Land Law 2013 and a number of other Government Decrees clearly state the responsibilities of the People's Committees of provinces, cities and enterprises in developing social housing. At the same time, the Government has also had a number of incentive mechanisms to encourage enterprises to participate in this field.

Many new regulations really encourage social housing picture 1 — Instead of encouragement, many new regulations “tighten” the mechanism to encourage social housing. (Photo: DM)

However, Hanoi voters are raising four somewhat "difficult to understand" issues that are creating barriers to social housing.

Firstly, the 2014 Housing Law stipulates that every year, the People's Committees of provinces and cities must allocate budgets for site clearance, infrastructure construction, and organizing bidding for investors to build social housing.

The 2014 Housing Law also stipulates that enterprises with legal land use rights, in accordance with housing construction planning, with capacity and experience, and with the need to build social housing, shall be assigned as investors in social housing construction projects.

However, in reality, from 2014 to present, very few People's Committees of provinces and cities have implemented these two regulations. In particular, from 2019 to present, in Hanoi, only 01 social housing project has been approved in principle for investment in project implementation.

Regarding preferential mechanisms, the Land Law stipulates that investors are exempted from land use fees when implementing social housing projects.

In addition, in Decree 100 issued in 2015, the Government also added a number of other supporting regulations, such as "Investors of social housing projects that do not use budget capital are exempted from land use fees and are allowed to reserve 20% of the total land area within the scope of the social housing construction project to build commercial housing".

In particular, in case there is no separate land fund for building commercial housing within the project, the investor is allowed to reserve 20% of the total floor area of the project's housing for sale at commercial prices.

However, in Decree 49 issued in 2021, the Government abolished the above regulation. Next, Decree 35 issued in 2023, the Government continued to "tighten" a number of preferential policies when developing social housing.

In particular, the Government stipulates that investors of social housing projects that do not use budget capital are only exempted from land use fees.

Faced with this situation, Hanoi voters believe that the Government should have more policies and incentives to attract business resources to invest in social housing, instead of introducing new "tight" regulations as it is now.

Hanoi voters wonder why the Government has eliminated the two support policies for investors of the above social housing projects.

“These are the two most basic regulations to support businesses to participate in investing in building social housing without losing capital, while the construction cost and selling price of social housing are approved by the People's Committees of provinces and cities, and the maximum profit for investors of social housing projects is regulated at 10%,” said a Hanoi voter.

Second, regarding Decision 610 of the Ministry of Construction issued in July 2022. In this Decision, the Ministry of Construction announced the construction investment capital rate.

Accordingly, the investment capital rate for the construction of commercial apartment buildings from 15 to 20 floors is 11,187,000 VND/m2; the investment capital rate for the construction of social housing in the form of apartment buildings from 15 to 20 floors is 8,525,000 VND/m2.

Both types of constructions are subject to the provisions of design standards TCVN 4451:2012 "Housing - Basic principles of design", QCVN 04:2021/BXD on Apartment buildings, QCVN06:2021/BXD on Fire safety for houses and constructions, but the investment rate of commercial apartments is 31% higher than that of social housing in the form of apartments. In addition, the profit of investors in social housing construction is regulated at a maximum of 10%.

Hanoi voters wonder why this Decision provides two investment capital rates for building apartment buildings, in which the social housing investment rate is 31% lower than the commercial housing investment rate while the maximum profit of social housing investment is stipulated at 10%.

Third, the 2014 Housing Law stipulates that every year, the People's Committees of provinces and cities must allocate budgets for site clearance, infrastructure construction, and organizing bidding for social housing construction, but cannot collect land use fees.

However, the Government's issuance of Decree No. 49, Decree No. 35 and Decision No. 610 of the Ministry of Construction is intended to discourage businesses from investing in the construction of social housing.

"Is this the support measure that the Government has met many times to come up with a rescue plan for the inventory of real estate of 22 large real estate enterprises?", Hanoi voters asked.

Fourth, citing data from the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor, Hanoi voters said that the country has about 52 million workers, 42% of whom, equivalent to 21.84 million people, do not have housing.

Recently, the Government launched the Project "Investing in building at least 1 million social housing units in the 2021-2030 period", thus, 20.84 million workers will never be able to buy social housing", Hanoi voters said.

“In particular, Hanoi voters said that, with the new regulations mentioned above, where will the land and capital come from to implement the project and when will the investment in building social housing for 20.84 million workers who are civil servants and public employees be implemented,” Hanoi voters said.

In response to the above questions, Hanoi voters requested the National Assembly Standing Committee and the National Assembly Petition Committee to request the Government and the Ministry of Construction to report to the National Assembly and notify voters.

Source