Proposal to remove social housing credit package under Decree 100 because no business has been able to borrow, what does the State Bank say?

ANTD.VN - Some recommendations suggest that the State Bank should abandon the social housing credit package currently being implemented at commercial banks, because so far no investor has had access to this loan package.

At the recent conference connecting banks and enterprises in Bac Ninh province, the leader of the Department of Construction of Bac Ninh province proposed that the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) continue to reduce interest rates for the social housing credit package of VND120 trillion; at the same time, remove the social housing loan package according to Decree 100 of the Government, because so far, no enterprise in the province has been able to access it.

Regarding the social housing loan package under Decree 100, this package has been implemented since 2016, at the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies and 4 state-owned commercial banks owned by the State Bank (Agribank, BIDV, VietinBank, Vietcombank).

The lending interest rate at the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies is decided by the Prime Minister upon the proposal of the Board of Directors of the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies for each period. The current applicable interest rate is 4.8%/year, much lower than the general interest rate for home loans.

The lending interest rate at designated credit institutions is determined and announced by the State Bank on the basis of ensuring the principle of not exceeding 50% of the average lending interest rate of commercial banks in the same period.

However, up to now, after 7 years of implementation, on the investor side, no business has been able to access this loan package.

Chưa có chủ đầu tư nào được vay gói tín dụng nhà ở xã hội theo Nghị định 100 ảnh 1

No investor has been able to borrow from the social housing credit package under Decree 100.

Explaining the reason for this situation, Mr. Nguyen Xuan Bac, Deputy Director of the Department of Credit for Economic Sectors (SBV), said that, for lending through designated credit institutions, up to now, 4 State-owned commercial banks have issued full lending procedures, but have not been able to implement them.

The reason is that the State budget has not yet allocated a source of compensation.

"This is a package in which the lending mechanism is that banks lend and are subsidized for interest rates, but up to now, banks do not have the source of subsidy to implement" - Mr. Bac informed and said that the State Bank as well as the Ministry of Construction have had many opinions and recommendations for the Government to arrange resources for interest rate subsidy.

Regarding the channel through the Social Policy Bank, the representative of the State Bank said that currently the Government only lends to home buyers, but for investors, the Government is having a project, and will only implement it when the project is approved.

However, even lending to home buyers is facing difficulties, because the customers of the Social Policy Bank are mainly poor, near-poor, and newly escaped poverty households in difficult areas.

For businesses, the Social Policy Bank itself has no experience in lending to real estate businesses, and needs to upgrade staff qualifications, networks, and processes before it can be implemented.

“Therefore, the Government requires the Social Policy Bank to develop a project, and only after approving the project will it approve loans for businesses investing in and building social housing.

Currently, the Social Policy Bank is developing and submitting it to the Government for approval, so the investor has not been able to borrow yet. The State Bank will speed up the project development progress," Mr. Bac informed.

According to the representative of the State Bank, the Government has identified these issues. Accordingly, the Ministry of Construction is studying amendments to the Housing Law, the Real Estate Business Law, and Decree 100 to promote social housing loans in the coming time.

At the same time, facing the above difficulties, the Government has assigned the State Bank to study packages to promote social housing loans. The State Bank has proposed that the Government issue a package of 120 trillion VND, using bank resources, not the budget.

"Experience shows that if the budget is used, the procedures will be prolonged, and businesses will be afraid of future inspections and audits. Therefore, the State Bank of Vietnam advises the Government to use the main resources of commercial banks, hoping to simplify, reduce complexity, implement quickly, and put into practice quickly," said Mr. Bac.

Responding to the proposal to further reduce interest rates on the VND120 trillion package, Ms. Bui Thuy Hang, Deputy Director of the Monetary Policy Department (SBV), said that because this package uses resources entirely from credit institutions, the interest rate will have to be higher than the loan package at the Social Policy Bank.

However, this interest rate is also very low compared to the general level and lower than the 10% proposed by the Bac Ninh Department of Construction. Accordingly, the interest rate applied to home buyers is 7.7%/year, investors are 8.2%/year...

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