Vietnamnet.vn
Podcast
 |
At the meeting with Hanoi’s officials on December 13, Minister of Construction Trinh Dinh Dung said that in the current context of the frozen real estate market, it would take many years to sell out the volume of commercial apartments of ongoing projects.
He told the investors to turn these commercial projects into social housing projects to serve low-income earners. Social housing is considered to be a multi-purpose stimulus package that benefits the people, businesses and the state, he said.
On this occasion, many construction firms made reports on their social housing projects, including big investors as Vinaconex, Nam Cuong Group and the Urban and Infrastructure Investment and Development Company (HUD).
Deputy Minister of Construction Nguyen Tran Nam said, according to current regulations, the housing development projects have to set aside 20 percent of land for social housing. However, projects in Hanoi do not strictly comply with this rule so the rate of land for this housing type is very low. He asked Hanoi authorities to quickly examine and classify construction projects to adjust accordingly, to have 20 percent of land for social housing.
"The Ministry of Construction is to follow this issue closely. The investors must take the initiative to adjust, otherwise they will be named and punished," Deputy Minister Nam said.
According to Nam, according to a draft decree on social housing development by the Ministry of Construction that has been submitted to the Government, the support mechanism for social housing projects will greatly increase. Social housing projects will be entitled to corporate income tax rate of only 10 percent and 5 percent VAT for the buyer.
The draft rules also expand the beneficiary of the social housing policy and narrow the conditions and criteria for buying this type of house. In addition, social housing project developers are allowed to use 20 percent of land to develop commercial housing to offset the cost of building social housing. The local authorities are permitted to provide infrastructure support to social housing projects.
The Ministry of Construction has proposed the government to apply the above regulations in the second quarter of 2013.
In particular, the Ministry has signed a credit agreement with the Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV) to support the social housing development program in 2013-2015.
Accordingly, in the next three years, BIDV will annually lend VND10 trillion ($500 million) for social housing investment with preferential interest rates, of which VND6.5 trillion ($320 million) for home buyers with soft interest rate for a period of 15 years, with 70 percent of the value of the house.
Compiled by S. Tung
.svg){kind=icon}
