Vietcombank is absent.

According to the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) report on the progress of the implementation of the VND120,000 billion credit package for investors and home buyers of social housing projects, worker housing projects, and projects to renovate and rebuild old apartments, so far only 28/63 provincial and municipal People's Committees have sent documents or announced a list of projects participating in the program with 68 projects.

The localities that announced many projects are Hanoi (6 projects), Ho Chi Minh City (6 projects), Bac Ninh (6 projects), Binh Dinh (5 projects)... Of which, 30 projects have a need for loans. The remaining projects do not have a need for loans because they have been completed or arranged other sources of capital.

Commercial banks have committed to providing credit to 15 projects with an amount of about VND7,000 billion. Ten projects need disbursement, including 7 projects providing credit to investors, 2 projects providing credit to home buyers and 1 project providing credit to both investors and home buyers.

The amount of credit committed to 8 project investors is 1,965 billion VND, of which 640 billion VND has been disbursed; and the amount of credit committed to 3 project home buyers is 7 billion VND, of which 6 billion VND has been disbursed.

Specifically, BIDV has disbursed VND95.7 billion to 3 project investors in Phu Tho, Thanh Hoa and Binh Duong provinces. VietinBank has disbursed VND128.6 billion to 1 project investor in An Giang province and VND400 million to home buyers in 1 project.

Agribank has disbursed VND415.7 billion to four project investors in Bac Ninh, Quang Ninh and Kien Giang provinces and VND5.7 billion to home buyers in two projects.

The State Bank's report does not mention Vietcombank.

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A social housing project in Thu Duc City, Ho Chi Minh City is expected to be completed this year. Photo: Contributor

What is the problem?

During the implementation of the program, the State Bank of Vietnam recognized a number of difficulties and problems, mainly related to supply and home buyers.

Regarding supply, some projects are on the announced list but investors do not need to borrow capital (because they have been completed or have borrowed capital from other sources). Some projects have encountered legal problems, such as site clearance, procedures for calculating land use fees, changing land use purposes, etc. Legal problems are also the reason why credit institutions do not have a basis to provide credit to project investors.

On the homebuyer side, currently, homebuyers in some projects have borrowed capital from the Social Policy Bank according to the provisions of Decree 100/2015/ND-CP, showing that these subjects will tend to choose to borrow capital from the Social Policy Bank with more preferential lending interest rates (the program has support from the state budget).

Customers buying houses in social housing projects, worker housing projects, and projects to renovate and rebuild old apartments are affected by the difficult economic and business situation such as: staff cuts, salary reductions due to lack of orders... leading to a decrease in customers' income.

Therefore, customers currently prioritize maintaining their living needs and have not considered buying a house at this time.

It is known that the VND120,000 billion credit package is deployed for nearly 10 years to implement the Project to build at least 1 million social housing units. The lending interest rate during the support period is 1.5-2% lower than the average medium- and long-term interest rate of 4 state-owned commercial banks in each period; every 6 months, the State Bank announces the lending interest rate during the support period to commercial banks.

Since the implementation of the Program, the State Bank has twice adjusted lending interest rates in a decreasing direction for investors and home buyers, respectively, from 8.5%/year and 8%/year (from April 1, 2023) to 8.2%/year and 7.7%/year (from July 1, 2023); and continued to decrease to 8%/year and 7.5%/year from January 1, 2024.

Regarding support period, for investors it is 3 years, for home buyers it is 5 years from the date of disbursement.