However, for Bac Ninh, a province with a strong industrial development and a large concentration of workers, the opposite is true. Although the province has built many housing projects, workers have not had much access to them. This raises the issue of the need for support policies to attract workers to social housing projects.

Build a lot, sell very little

The Social Housing Project serving the Industrial Park in Ho Ward, Thuan Thanh Town, Bac Ninh Province, invested by Lan Hung Real Estate Group Joint Stock Company, is one of the first worker housing projects in the province. However, to date, the number of apartments for sale and rent is very small.

Mr. Nguyen Van Toan, Project Management Board of the social housing project serving the industrial park in Ho Ward, said: Built since 2019, with a total investment of over 920 billion VND, the project has a scale of 4.5 hectares, including 4 buildings with a total of 1,400 workers' houses. To date, the company has started construction of 2 apartment buildings with about 648 apartments.

“Before opening for sale, the company surveyed 30 enterprises in the industrial park in Thuan Thanh town with more than 3,000 workers and laborers. However, the percentage of workers registering to buy or rent houses was 0.17%. In fact, up to now, the company has only sold or rented 130 apartments,” said Mr. Nguyen Van Toan.

In the past, the company has received 8-10 people every day who want to learn about, rent, or buy apartments. However, most of them are subjects that are eligible to buy social housing, not workers' housing. The completed apartments are rarely needed by the right subjects, but those who are not eligible have a great need. Currently, the company has sent a document requesting to add groups of subjects eligible to buy or rent housing in the project to state management agencies, the Provincial People's Committee, the Ministry of Construction, etc., but it has not yet been resolved.

Similarly, the investment project to build a social housing area to accommodate workers in the Industrial Park in Dong Tien Commune, Yen Phong District (9.8 ha) and the Housing and Service Area for officers and employees of Yen Phong Industrial Park, in Dong Phong Commune, Yen Phong District, Bac Ninh Province (51 ha) implemented by Viglacera Corporation has also encountered many difficulties so far.

The investor representative said: With these two projects, the investor has completed 1,581 apartments but so far has only sold and rented out about 200 apartments. According to the project investor, the large number of unsold apartments and the slow implementation of the project is because the project only allows workers in the industrial park where the project is located to rent or buy social housing. Meanwhile, other groups in need such as workers and employees of enterprises outside the industrial park or cluster are not eligible for social housing support policies.

Vigracera Corporation has proposed that authorities at all levels create conditions to allow enterprises in industrial parks to rent or buy social housing for their workers at a lower rental price than the investor's rental price or to provide free housing to create stable living conditions for workers. At the same time, allow expansion to all beneficiaries of social housing policies for projects.

Get in on the action

According to Deputy Director of the Department of Construction of Bac Ninh province Nguyen Tuan Dung, currently, the province has implemented 54 social housing projects for low-income people and housing for industrial park workers, with a total land area of ​​about 173 hectares with more than 77,000 apartments for about 231,000 people; of which, there are 21 housing projects for workers with a total land area of ​​about 91 hectares meeting 45,000 apartments.

In addition, in Bac Ninh province, the Trade Union Institutional Area project is being implemented in Yen Phong Industrial Park, with a scale of 4.28 hectares, site clearance and technical infrastructure investment have been completed, and when completed, it will provide about 900 apartments for about 2,800 people.

However, workers' housing projects still face difficulties in compensation and site clearance. Some projects are behind schedule due to problems in site clearance because people have not yet agreed on compensation, infrastructure connection, and loans.

In particular, regarding investment procedures, some projects that have been selected after meeting the conditions for putting into business according to regulations have encountered difficulties in accessing customers. Because the number of workers working in industrial zones registering to buy, rent, or lease-purchase houses in the project area is very small. Meanwhile, the housing demand of other social groups that are eligible is very high but they are not allowed to buy, rent, or lease-purchase houses in these projects.

According to Deputy Director of the Department of Construction of Bac Ninh province Nguyen Tuan Dung, in order to remove the above difficulties, Bac Ninh province has organized a conference to remove difficulties for social housing projects. At the conference, Secretary of the Bac Ninh Provincial Party Committee Nguyen Anh Tuan directed departments, branches and localities to proactively research, review and advise the Provincial People's Committee to issue legal documents guiding the implementation of the Housing Law 2023, the Real Estate Business Law 2023, and the Land Law 2023 to ensure the application of the new Law immediately after it takes effect. Based on the difficulties and obstacles in the development of social housing, research and contribute opinions related to the content of the problems to the draft Decrees of the Government guiding the above laws. Along with that, the province reviews and supplements urban planning, industrial park planning, ensuring sufficient land fund for social housing development. At the same time, plan and arrange social housing projects and housing for independent workers in suitable and convenient locations, with appropriate scale, full technical infrastructure, and social infrastructure. At the same time, review and strictly implement regulations on reserving 20% ​​of residential land fund invested in technical infrastructure in commercial housing projects and urban areas for investment in social housing development.

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