Delegate Pham Van Thinh warned that social housing investors will go bankrupt because "no customers are eligible to buy" when many regulations are making it difficult for workers.
According to the social housing development project approved by the Prime Minister, by 2030, the country will have one million social housing units (of which 428,000 units will be completed by 2025). The total expected capital is VND849,000 billion, mainly from socialized capital. This project is expected to help make housing prices affordable for low- and middle-income households in urban areas and industrial park workers.
However, Mr. Pham Van Thinh, Head of the Bac Giang Province Mass Mobilization Committee, was concerned about the feasibility of this project when discussing socio-economic issues at the National Assembly on May 31.
He cited that in Bac Giang, workers wanted to buy but did not meet the condition of "not having any other house or land".
Specifically, the social housing project in Nenh town (Viet Yen district, Bac Giang), phase 1 has 4,000 apartments, selling price 12.3 million VND per square meter. The investor is completing to put into use, but since the announcement of receiving applications, more than a year has passed and only over 200 workers are eligible to buy houses.
Given this reality, he believes that social housing project investors are at risk of bankruptcy because there are no qualified customers. Mr. Thinh recommends loosening the conditions for buying and renting social housing.
Mr. Pham Van Thinh, Head of the Bac Giang Province Mass Mobilization Committee, spoke at the socio-economic discussion on the afternoon of May 31. Photo: Hoang Phong
Inadequacies in conditions for buying and renting social housing are also obstacles that have prevented anyone from borrowing from the VND120,000 billion credit package despite being implemented for nearly two months. This is a loan package to support investors and buyers of social housing projects and workers' housing with interest rates 1.5-2% lower than market interest rates.
Ms. Tran Thi Van, Deputy Head of the Bac Ninh delegation, raised the issue that there have been other support packages for buying and renting social housing in the economic recovery program under Resolution 43 of the National Assembly. These policies are all implemented in 2023 and the implementation results are very low. For example, the 2% interest rate reduction package to support social housing loans has only disbursed nearly 1%, or the 15,000 billion VND loan package of the Social Policy Bank for workers and laborers has only been implemented more than 34%.
"The previous credit packages have not been fully absorbed, so is the VND120,000 billion package feasible, while the Land Law, Real Estate Business Law and Housing Law are being revised, and related planning has not been approved yet," said the Deputy Head of the Bac Ninh Provincial Delegation.
A survey of more than 8,300 people conducted by the Private Economic Development Research Board (Board IV) and VnExpress at the end of April also showed that 39% of respondents said that the conditions for buying social housing were the biggest barrier. For example, the regulation "not having a house of their own" will make it difficult for workers who have houses in their hometowns (especially in rural, remote areas) and want to migrate and settle down in the locality where they work. Or the regulation "must be in the category of not having to pay regular income tax" (VND 11 million per month for workers without dependents) also has many unreasonable points.
Delegate Tran Thi Van proposed that the Government combine support packages for social housing development into one and extend the implementation of these policies until the end of 2025, contributing to the completion of the goal of building 1 million social housing apartments for workers.
Explaining later, Minister of Construction Nguyen Thanh Nghi said that this agency has guided and authorized the People's Committees of the provinces to check legal procedures and make a list of social housing projects, worker housing, and renovation of old apartments. The list is made public and serves as a basis for banks to lend.
Minister of Construction Nguyen Thanh Nghi explains at the socio-economic discussion session on the afternoon of May 31. Photo: Hoang Phong
To date, there are 100 projects and localities in need of borrowing more than VND9,610 billion from the VND120,000 billion package. Of which, Binh Dinh wants to borrow VND1,832 billion; Phu Tho VND441 billion; Da Nang VND545 billion; Tra Vinh VND420 billion; Bac Giang VND4,527 billion and Hai Phong VND3,892 billion.
"The program has only been implemented for a month and this credit package is for the entire period until 2030, so more localities and projects will participate," said Minister Nghi.
He added that the Ministry of Construction and the State Bank will work with ministries, branches and localities to remove mechanisms such as amending regulations in the Housing Law and other laws to most effectively implement the VND120,000 billion credit package.
It is forecasted that by 2030, the country will need 2.4 million social housing units, of which 1.2 million units will be needed by 2025. There are 2.7 million industrial park workers, of which 1.2 million people have housing needs. To date, the country has completed only 301 urban social housing projects and industrial park worker housing projects with 155,800 units.
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