Deputy Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) Dao Minh Tu said at the government’s regular press conference on January 3 that there are two resources for social housing development. 

The first is from the state budget disbursed through the Bank for Social Policies. To date, the bank has been allocated VND3.163 trillion worth of capital.

The second is under the program on socio-economic recovery and development in accordance with Resolution 43/2022 and Resolution 11/NQ-CP. The Bank for Social Policies mobilizes resources in society through government bond issuance guaranteed by the government (VND 15 trillion).

A report said that from the two sources, the bank has lent VND 9.994 trillion to 27.894 clients to fund social housing purchases. This includes the VND3,717 trillion belonging to the recovery program, with 9,527 clients.

Social housing has also been developed with commercial loans with preferences offered by the State. The lending mechanism remains incomplete, but Tu affirmed that all commercial banks are ready for disbursement.

Meanwhile, Deputy Minister of Construction Nguyen Van Sinh said many enterprises are struggling to follow procedures to develop social housing. In general, they have had to wait too long to obtain licenses.

The government and Prime Minister have recently made a number of instructions to promote the development of housing and social housing projects.

The government has amended Decree 100 on social housing development. Decree 49 was also revised with some modified administrative procedures and more easily-implemented regulations.

According to Decree 49 dated 2021, the government set administrative procedures for social housing project development, under which a project must go through three phases.

The first is investment preparation, which includes land reservation and allocation, land rent calculation, investment procedures, selection of investors and the tasks related to project approval.

The second is project implementation and the third is accepting works and putting them into operation.

Asked whether the plan on building 1 million social housing units would help force housing prices down, Deputy Minister of Construction Nguyen Van Sinh said in general, real estate prices are determined by the market. However, with investment incentives, procedure simplification and capital cost reduction, social housing prices will suit workers’ pockets.

According to the Ministry of Construction (MOC), 301 social housing projects in cities and accommodations for factory workers in industrial zones (IZs), with 155,800 products and a total area of 7,790,000 sq m have been completed.

Hong Khanh