In Directive 34-CT/TW, the Secretariat assessed that many targets on social housing development in the National Housing Development Strategy to 2020 and vision to 2030 have not been achieved. The supply of social housing is still limited compared to actual demand, while the average price is still too high compared to the income of beneficiaries.

In addition, state management of social housing also has many weaknesses and shortcomings. The proportion of land fund for social housing development in urban areas as well as the capital support from the state budget for preferential credit programs for this segment is still low; social resources have not been strongly mobilized to participate...

These series of reasons have made the development of social housing not as expected despite the many policy “supports”. This also makes the set goals very difficult to achieve. A series of difficulties are “binding” the goals.

The difficulty of "binding" the target

Mr. Hoang Hai - Director of the Department of Housing and Real Estate Market Management (Ministry of Construction) said: Currently, there are still some localities that have not promptly issued plans to implement the Project "Investing in the construction of at least 1 million social housing units for low-income people and industrial park workers in the period of 2021-2030"; have not clearly identified the demand for land for investment in the construction of social housing as a basis for planning to allocate enough land for social housing development... At the same time, many enterprises investing in the construction of social housing still face difficulties in accessing land such as planning for land allocation, publicizing investment attraction projects. Some projects have approved investment policies and selected investors, however, the implementation of investment and construction is not on schedule...

In addition, the disbursement of preferential credit capital of 120,000 billion VND is still slow compared to expectations and practical needs. Not to mention that there are not many commercial banks participating in lending to support social housing development - Mr. Hai commented.

In 2024, the Government set a target of completing 130,000 social housing units nationwide. However, statistics show that by the end of the first quarter of 2024, only 8 social housing projects have been completed nationwide, less than 30% of the target number of apartments. This progress shows that the target of completing 130,000 social housing units this year is still quite far from the "destination" and will require great efforts to achieve.

From a local perspective, Mr. Huynh Thanh Khiet - Deputy Director of the Department of Construction of Ho Chi Minh City said that the biggest difficulty at present is the lack of investment capital from the budget, so it cannot be fully allocated to build social housing programs owned by the State to fully solve the problems for policy subjects such as cadres, civil servants, public employees, etc.

Currently, Ho Chi Minh City has only allocated 10% of the capital to implement social housing programs. From now until 2025, according to the plan, 37,700 billion VND is needed. However, the city is only able to meet the budget allocation of about 3,770 billion VND. By 2030, the city needs 86,400 billion VND but can only allocate 8,600 billion VND from the budget and the rest can only be used from social capital sources.

Flexible type

Some people say that one of the reasons why the social housing program has not been successful is because it sells houses to people who cannot afford to buy them. Mr. Nguyen Van Dinh - Real estate legal expert commented: In addition to social housing products for sale and rent-to-own, the issue of social housing for rent also needs policies to promote development. Because social housing is mainly aimed at low-income groups.

According to this expert, the Housing Law 2023, which took effect from August 1, has removed the regulation that social housing project investors must reserve 20% of the floor area for rent. This means that if 100% of the apartments can be sold, the State needs to supplement the supply for replacement rentals.

The 2023 Housing Law only stipulates that the type of housing for industrial park workers is for rent. Thus, low-income groups who are not workers in industrial parks, such as manual laborers and freelance workers in urban areas, have almost no opportunity to access social housing for rent.

Sharing the same view, Mr. Trinh Quang Minh - Head of the Trade Union Institution Project Management Board - Vietnam General Confederation of Labor commented: Building social housing for sale is very difficult because the procedures are lengthy, the selling price is higher than the income of low-income workers; the regulations are not attractive to investors with a profit limit of only 10%... Therefore, developing social housing for rent will be more reasonable, meeting actual needs, suitable for workers' income. Moreover, the demand for rent is very large, while the supply is scarce, the rental price on the market is very high.

Currently, the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor has proposed a social housing rental plan, with social housing rental prices equal to or lower than the market price. A typical example is the pilot social housing rental project of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor in Ha Nam province, which was fully rented in a short time as soon as it was launched.

The rental price of this project is from 1.2 to 1.4 million VND/month, while outside the rental price is from 2 to 3 million VND/month. However, according to Mr. Minh, there are 3 difficulties when building social housing for rent, which are attracting investment resources, project location and rental price.

From a business perspective, Mr. Le Huu Nghia - Director of Le Thanh Construction Trading Company analyzed: If investing in 1,000 social housing units, each unit costs about 500 million VND, the investment cost will also be up to 500 billion VND. When renting at a price of 3-3.5 million VND/month, with 1,000 units, the investor will earn 3-3.5 billion VND/month, 30-35 billion VND/year.

If the investor borrows commercially with an interest rate of over 10-13%/year, this 500 billion VND must pay 50 billion VND in interest and the investor will surely lose money. Meanwhile, in the 2023 Housing Law, the development of social housing for rent will only make a profit equal to that of social housing for sale, which is 10%. According to the new regulations, rental housing will no longer receive state investment in technology and social infrastructure, so no investor dares to do a social housing project for rent - Mr. Nghia emphasized.

Remove from policy

While many localities are facing difficulties in implementing social housing policies, in Hai Phong city, the implementation of this policy has achieved remarkable results. Up to now, Hai Phong city has approved the policy and selected investors for 31 social housing projects with a total scale of 36,600 units; of which, 9 projects have started construction with a total scale of about 15,000 units. With this number, in the period of 2021 - 2025, it is expected that about 16,200 units will be completed and will exceed the social housing development target set by the Government of 15,400 units.

This shows that difficulties still exist but need to be resolved, starting with policies and the story of Hai Phong is also a typical example. To achieve these positive results, Hai Phong city has closely followed the provisions of the law on real estate and housing business. Accordingly, Hai Phong City Party Committee has paid attention to directing, the City People's Council passed 5 resolutions, the City People's Committee issued 13 related decisions for implementation.

In particular, Hai Phong city has flexibly and effectively applied current mechanisms and policies to improve the investment and business environment, especially housing procedures; including social housing. Thereby, creating a transparent, open and friendly business environment, attracting many large-scale investment projects, effectively meeting the needs of people to buy and rent social housing.

Director Hoang Hai informed that although some important results have been achieved, the implementation of social housing development still has some shortcomings. Currently, the Ministry of Construction is focusing on implementing, completing and guiding localities to implement decrees, decisions and circulars detailing and guiding the implementation of the Housing Law 2023 and the Real Estate Business Law 2023 after they are promulgated.

At the same time, the Ministry of Construction continues to urge localities to base on the target of the Project "Investing in the construction of at least 1 million social housing apartments for low-income people and industrial park workers in the period of 2021-2030" and the target according to the social housing appendix to be completed in 2024, urgently develop a specific plan to implement investment in social housing projects to ensure the set target.

To implement the National Housing Development Strategy for the 2021-2030 period, with a vision to 2045, the Ministry of Construction has sent a document to the People's Committees of provinces and centrally run cities on the development and adjustment of housing development plans for 2024 and the 2021-2025 period; clearly defining the needs and goals of social housing for low-income people, housing for the armed forces and workers' accommodation... to comply with the Housing Law 2023.

In addition to implementing the National Assembly's Supervision Program in 2024, the National Assembly will conduct supreme supervision on the topic "Implementation of policies and laws on real estate market management and social housing development from 2015 to the end of 2023". The supervision topic aims to evaluate the achievements, limitations and difficulties; identify the causes, and clarify the responsibilities of agencies, organizations and individuals to improve the effectiveness of the implementation of policies and laws on real estate market management and social housing development. From there, propose solutions to improve related policies and laws.

With the synchronous participation of the entire political system with a proactive spirit, "wherever there is a problem, there is a solution", the implementation of social housing policies will meet the set goals as well as the expectations of society.

Lesson 2: Make it easy for workers to access