Vietnam currently has 3,077 real estate development projects underway with a total investment of VND3.3 quadrillion (US$145.3 billion), heard a conference held by the Ministry of Construction this week.

Nguyen Tran Nam, chairman of the Vietnam Real Estate Association, said Vietnam’s real estate market had achieved healthy and strong growth over the past two years.

There were 64,000 real estate transactions done in HCMC and Hanoi in 2017, up by 24,000 transactions over 2016. Real estate prices remained stable and low-cost housing projects were still in high demand. Besides, outstanding real estate loans declined.

Deputy Minister of Construction Le Quang Hung said the construction sector posted growth of 8.7% last year. The country’s average urbanization rate was 37.5%, up 90 basis points compared to 2016. There are 813 cities and towns nationwide at the moment, up by 11 cities and towns against 2016.

Last year saw the nation’s average floor area of housing per person rising by 0.6 square meter to 23.4 square meters compared to 2016. Outstanding real estate loans as of the third quarter of 2017 had amounted to around VND447 trillion, 6-8% of the banking system’s total. This figure was at safe levels.

There were five social housing projects with about 1,225 units for low-income people and workers of industrial zones finished last year. There are 16 social housing projects with about 5,200 units under construction.

Addressing the conference, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc asked the Ministry of Construction to develop more social and low-cost housing for low-income people and put fast high-end housing development under control.

Nguyen Tran Nam of the Vietnam Real Estate Association proposed the Government have more flexible credit policy to boost the development of the real estate sector.

“VND1.2 trillion of the VND2-trillion package for the social housing program approved by the National Assembly has not been disbursed. VND600 billion should be used for social housing projects and the remaining VND600 billion should be used to offer preferential interest rates for buyers of low-cost homes,” Nam said.

SGT