VietNamNet Bridge – After two months of deploying the VND30 trillion housing credit package initiated by the Government, local banks have disbursed and committed to lend a total of nearly VND800 billion only, the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) reports.

To date, five participating banks have disbursed a mere VND65.5 billion from the hefty credit program to 219 individual customers, who are meant to be the key beneficiaries of the program.

Specifically, Vietinbank has pledged to lend the most, at VND23.8 billion, while Mekong Housing Bank has pledged to lend customers but has yet to disburse the loans.

Homebuyers in the central coast city of Danang have taken out the most home loans, as much as 29.25% of the total, followed by Hanoi with 28.58%, Vinh Phuc 11.85%, HCMC 10.51% and other provinces and cities 19.81%.

Corporate customers, meanwhile, are gaining the upper hand.

BIDV has lent a combined VND658 billion to two companies, one in Hue and the other in HCMC. Agribank has got approval from SBV to lend VND50 billion to one enterprise in the Mekong Delta province of Can Tho.

According to SBV, local real estate inventory declined by 15.4% as of June 30 versus the end of this year’s first quarter, which is partly ascribed to the positive impacts of the Government’s housing credit support.

Property inventory amounted to a total of about 27,800 units nationwide, mostly in the high-class and luxury segments, while the number of unsold products in the low-cost home segment was inconsiderable, the SBV said, citing a recent report of the Ministry of Construction.

In the past, property companies had only focused on developing high-class and large-sized housing units, resulting in a lack of low-cost homes and commercial homes valued at below VND15 million a square meter as criteria for the home credit program. Therefore, housing supply for individuals who intend to buy and hire homes as the target borrowers of the housing credit package remains limited.

The SBV in its report quoted the Minister of Construction as saying the reason behind the slow disbursement is that there are few low-cost and commercial housing products of under 70 square meters a unit selling for less than VND15 million per square meter as of now, offering few chances to local residents to meet lending conditions of the special credit program.

In the meantime, most low-cost home projects have just started construction lately, thus no products have been launched onto the local market accordingly.

The SBV in the report said it would work with related ministries and agencies to deal with troubles to make it easier for locals to gain access to the low-interest loans of the credit package.

Meanwhile, the construction ministry has grown more impatient with the slow housing credit package deployment.

In a just-released document, the ministry asks authorities of provinces and cities to step up the review of housing development projects and classify them into schemes that should be continued, schemes whose construction should be suspended and those that should be converted into low-cost homes to meet current housing demand.

The ministry also requires localities to shorten the time of assessing and approving housing plans to make it easier for involved property developers to get low-interest loans from the housing credit program.

Besides, provincial governments are also told to create favorable conditions for households and individuals as the target borrowers of the housing credit package by quickly certifying their household registration and housing conditions.

The HCMC Department of Construction in May reported 322 suspended property schemes in the city, with 91 projects in District 9, 50 projects in Nha Be District and one project in District 4. Meanwhile, the number of on-going schemes citywide is 769 with total floor spaces of some 59 million square meters.

Only three commercial housing projects in the city have been allowed for conversion into budget homes in the city so far.

Source: SGT