Low-income people find it difficult to buy social housing.

According to many workers, compared to their income, the current price of social housing in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City is still too high.

For example, the NHS Trung Van social housing project was recently opened for sale for the first time at a price of nearly 20 million VND/m2, which surprised many people. According to the Hanoi Department of Construction, the rental price of an apartment in this project is 99,081 VND/m2/month (including VAT and maintenance costs), the selling price is 19,523,116 VND/m2 (including VAT) and the maintenance fee is 371,869 VND/m2.

Thus, to own the smallest apartment with an area of 69.9m2 in this project, buyers need to spend more than 1.39 billion VND, while the largest area of 76.8m2 requires about 1.5 billion VND/apartment.

According to data from the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the average income of workers is about 8 million VND/person/month, so a family with 2 parents and 2 small children will have an income of about 16 million VND/month.

After deducting expenses such as: house rent (about 3 - 4 million VND/month), tuition for 2 children (about 3 million VND/month), living expenses (about 5 - 6 million VND/month)..., families in this income group can save about 5 million VND/month, about 60 million VND/year.

Social housing prices are still high compared to low-income people's income. (Photo: baochinhphu.vn).

Thus, with the current social housing prices, workers must work for at least 23 years (without illness, special expenses, etc.) to be able to buy a house. However, 23 years after saving enough money, the house price will certainly be at a much higher level, so even if they save, it will be difficult for workers to own a house in 23 years.

Meanwhile, the current regulation stipulates that the maximum loan amount for purchasing social housing is 80% of the value of the house rental-purchase contract, for a minimum period of 15 years. However, to borrow this amount of money, the renter or buyer must meet quite strict and complicated conditions to prove income.

Therefore, although the 120,000 billion VND credit package has an interest rate during the preferential period that is 1.5-2% lower than the average interest rate of commercial banks, after 3 months of implementation, only about 95 billion VND has been disbursed and 950 billion VND has been committed to lending.

Explaining the current high price of social housing, Mr. Le Huu Nghia, Director of Le Thanh Construction - Trading Company Limited, said that housing prices have increased and there will be no story of prices going down again.

There are many reasons for the high price of social housing such as: increased construction material prices; increased labor prices; increased inflation, etc. Especially because the legal procedures when businesses apply for approval to build projects are too complicated and troublesome, so the longer the procedure takes, the higher the house price increases.

Because businesses spend billions to buy land that is left idle waiting for procedures, leading to no new projects and no supply, so the price increase is obvious.

“ The issue that needs attention is that currently the salary of Vietnamese people is very low and the high price of housing will affect workers and those who have real needs. Owning a house will become more difficult for them and they will almost not be able to afford to buy one. Therefore, we have to find other solutions to help them settle down. For example: building houses for workers to rent, not everyone has to buy a house, it depends on the situation.

For those who can afford it, we will build houses for them to buy. Therefore, we should divide social housing into many segments for low-income people ,” Mr. Nghia shared.

Regarding the price of social housing lease-purchase, the Ministry of Construction said that the Government is currently accepting and revising the draft Law on Housing (amended), accordingly, the lease-purchase price is determined as the selling price and does not include the housing maintenance fee paid by the lessee according to the provisions of the Law on Housing; the rental price is agreed upon by the investor and the lessee.

Also according to the Ministry of Construction, Article 82 of the draft stipulates incentives for investors in social housing construction investment projects, such as: exemption from land use fees, land rent, tax incentives according to tax laws, investors are entitled to a profit of 10% of the social housing construction area, are entitled to incentives for the land area or commercial floor area and do not have to account for it in the price of social housing.

“ The above regulations, once approved, will encourage and promote investment and development of social housing and ensure that social housing prices are at an appropriate level so that low-income workers and laborers have the conditions to choose to buy, rent or lease housing and stabilize their lives ,” the Ministry of Construction assessed.

Chau Anh

Source