Obstacles in mechanisms and policies for social housing to be removed

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The Chairman of the HCM City Real Estate Association, Mr. Le Hoang Chau.

What do you think about the mechanisms and policies for the development of social housing and housing for low-income people in HCMC currently?

The policies and mechanisms for social housing development have been set out in the Housing Law 2014 and Decree 100/2015 / ND-CP. In particular, on 25^th January 2017, the Prime Minister issued Directive No. 03/CT-TTg to direct Ministries, Departments, provinces and cities to promote the development of social housing, especially housing for workers in the near future to basically achieve the goal of social housing development from now to 2020.

If Ministries, Departments, provinces and cities implement Directive 03/CT-TTg urgently and effectively, they will remove many difficulties and obstacles as well as creating favourable mechanisms to promote the development of social housing projects in 2017 and the following years.

In your opinion, what are difficulties and obstacles in mechanisms and policies on social housing and cheap houses which need to be revised and modified to facilitate the development of this type of housing?

Currently, there are still some barriers in mechanisms and policies for investors and low-income buyers. Specifically, the barriers for investors include capital and procedures. In order to remove difficulties in capital, investors have to borrow preferential loans under Directive 03/CT-TTg. Regarding procedures, in order to remove difficulties in approval of the investment policy, the Government should permit all provinces and cities to approve all social housing projects in their area and the local Department of Construction shall have the right to approve basic design, technical design and issue the license of construction for social housing projects.

Thus, this will be faster and less negative. In addition, some other provisions on approval of the design of fire protection for projects and the maximum height of each construction should be regulated by specialized agencies.

For buyers of social housing, they should resolve financial burdens. Specifically, Ministries and sectors should urgently support the people who need to buy social houses in accordance with Directive 03/CT-TTg. In addition, the demand for savings deposit on social housing at the Social Policy Bank is still too high compared to income of policy beneficiaries.

Therefore, it is necessary to stipulate that a monthly deposit rate for social housing will be at 500,000 vnd per month or no more than 1,000,000 vnd per month. Interest rates on social housing should be equal to the normal savings rate at commercial banks for long-term deposits (more than 12 months) instead of the current rate of 5% to encourage the policy beneficiaries to buy social housing.

Currently, the real estate market is lacking a lot of social housing projects and cheap commercial houses for low-income people. In your opinion, which solutions should HCM City focus on to solve problems related to social housing for low-income people?

In order to solve housing problems for low-income people, in addition to creating a land fund from the effective use of the city's social housing land funds and 20% of a land fund for commercial housing projects, HCM City needs to promote socialization, encourage businesses to develop social housing as well as encouraging individuals and households to invest in housing development to provide accommodation and meet the demand of workers and immigrants.

In addition, one of the solutions to make cheap houses for low-income people is to connect 4 parties, including: investors, construction companies, material suppliers and banks. In addition, there is a need for participation of the State authorities and local authorities to create favourable conditions and legal environment for housing investment and development of projects for low-income people.

2017: Waiting for affordable housing VCN- The demand for low-cost housing and affordable housing is very high but the supply is limited. ...

Thank you!