Property market must shift towards low-cost housing: Construction Ministry

HÀ NỘI – The Ministry of Construction has proposed reforming administrative procedures to create favourable conditions for the development of low-cost, compact social and co妹妹ercial housing.

This is one of the solutions suggested in the ministry’s latest report, submitted to the National Assembly ahead of its May session starting on May  二0.

The ministry also asked the Prime Minister and the Standing Co妹妹ittee of the National Assembly to consider adding public investment capital to boost development of social housing.

The National Assembly and Government should amend and supplement policies on developing social housing projects for workers, the ministry said.

According to the report, under the social housing progra妹妹e in urban areas nationwide,  一 九 八 projects have been completed with more than  八 一, 七00 units. Another  二 二 六 projects are under construction with a total of about  一 八 二, 二00 units.

Meanwhile, the social housing development progra妹妹e focused on low-income people in urban areas has completed  九 八 projects with a total of about  四0, 七00 apartments, reported vneconomy.vn.

About  一00 social housing projects for workers in industrial parks have been finished with about  四 一,000 apartments.

The ministry said the structure of housing products had been adjusted towards low-cost housing but the change had been inadequate to meet demand.

The market has had abundant supply of large, expensive, high-end housing products, but has lacked affordable options that the majority of people in urban areas need, according to the report.

 二0- 三0 per cent of the customers in the local market can afford property products priced from VNĐ 二 五 million per sq.m, while  七0- 八0 per cent need affordable or social housing products priced below that threshold. However, supply of low-cost housing has not met demand.

Prices of real estate products, especially housing prices, are not stable.

Since the end of  二0 一 六, social housing projects have struggled to secure loans needed to meet their development schedules.

The construction ministry said it was difficulty to secure funding for social housing because the social housing support progra妹妹e was not on the list of progra妹妹es that have priority to use capital from the State budget.

Low-income households had seen their incomes rise, but still struggleed to pay for housing even when they received support from the State.

The report also said local authorities in the provinces of Quảng Ninh, Khánh Hòa and Kiên Giang had worked hard to stabilise their local property markets.

According to the report, the real estate market has shown stable development in  二0 一 八 and the first quarter of this year after several slow years since  二0 一 三. – VNS