VietNamNet Bridge - The Ministry of Construction has not made public the standards to define who the low income earners are, so it is difficult for banks to grant house-purchasing loans to this subject.

VND30 trillion credit package can rescue real estate market?

Real estate bailout kicks off

In the past month, as required by the banks, the borrowers have to prepare a lot of documents in order to get loans to buy houses. However, they are still unable to access to capital because banks are awaiting the Ministry of Construction’s definition on low-income earners.

Ms. Hoang Thi Thu form Go Vap district, Ho Chi Minh City, said: "Nearly one month ago, I went to a bank branch to ask about the formalities for the house purchasing loans for the low-income earners. The staff told me that the borrower must meet a lot of conditions and have to prepare about 10 types of papers. I tried my best to prepare the papers in the hope of buying a house but until now I do not know whether I meet the conditions to be considered the low-income earner or not."

The preferential loan package is valid for only a certain number of projects so it makes difficult for the borrower. After nearly a month of implementing the VND30 trillion bailout, only one individual client has had access to the capital.

In the current situation, after the VND30 trillion credit package was officially implemented, the real estate businesses have been very quick to take this chance to be shortlisted to participate in building houses for low-income earners in order to be eligible to the loans. The list of 10 companies that are approved to borrow a total of VND9 trillion with interest rate at 6 percent/year, for 10 years, is made very quickly by the Ministry of Construction.

At present, many companies also are trying to turn their commercial housing projects into social housing projects to be on the list of candidates eligible for concessional loans. Is it reasonable when the inventories continue to increase while hundreds of social housing projects are commenced?

According to statistics, 157 social housing projects are underway to build 68,500 apartments, with total investment of VND19.9 trillion. In addition, 47 commercial housing projects will be converted into social housing projects.

Nam Phong