Many problems in social housing development need to be resolved

At a recent working session with the Government’s delegation, Vo Van Minh, Vice-Secretary of provincial Party Committee, Chairman of provincial People's Committee has requested the Ministry of Construction to consider and set up a plan to remove difficulties in order to achieve the goal of building 1 million social housing units under the direction of the Prime Minister while creating favorable conditions for workers to access social housing apartments and stabilize their lives.

Complicated procedures

Binh Duong is now home to about 1.5 million workers, 50% of whom are immigrants. To provide accommodation for people and workers, the province has paid special attention to developing the model of social housing. Accordingly, the province approved and implemented the local social housing development project more than 10 years ago, thereby helping hundreds of thousands of workers and low-income people secure a safe home and a stable life. During the period of 2011-2020, the province developed 40 social housing projects, with about 60,000 apartments, providing accommodation for 200,000 people.

Many social housing projects in Binh Duong meet the needs of workers and locals. In picture: A glance of Dinh Hoa Social Housing Area in Thu Dau Mot city

However, it is still difficult for low-income workers to own social housing apartments. Home buying procedures are complicated with inappropriate loan support policies. Pham Thi Tuyet, a worker at Thong Dung Footwear Company in Thuan An city shared: "For alien workers who have been with Binh Duong for many years, owning a house to help stabilize their lives is a dream. I hope the procedure for borrowing capital to buy social housing apartments will be easier and more convenient."

Luu Dinh Thong, Director of the Social Housing Project Management Board under Chanh My Ecological Urban Area in Thu Dau Mot city’s Chanh My ward said that the project's customers are facing problems in procedures. For some cases, workplace cannot confirm their housing situation or income conditions... Therefore, their documents will not be approved.

In terms of obstacles in social housing construction and real estate business, Vo Van Minh, Chairman of provincial People's Committee said that the procedures for investing in building, buying and selling social housing apartments are still complicated. The approval of beneficiaries for social housing policies must go through many steps..., causing many difficulties. Specifically, social housing projects are exempt from land use fees, but still have to carry out procedures to calculate land use fees to be exempted. The beneficiaries of social housing policies must be decided by competent agencies. In addition, the determination of the prices selling, leasing, and purchasing social housing apartments must be appraised by provincial-level State agencies, prolonging the time, due to having to wait for audit results, delaying the time to mobilize capital for businesses. Incentive policies for investors in social housing projects for workers that have been issued are not attractive enough, not substantive and do not attract or encourage investors. Many businesses are worried that investing in social housing projects will be complicated with many procedures, difficult to implement and unable to make products...

Creating maximum conditions needed

The current Housing Law does not have regulations allowing business organizations and cooperatives to purchase, lease social housing apartments. Meanwhile, in reality, the demand of business organizations and cooperatives that want to buy or rent social housing apartment for their workers is very large. At the meeting with the Government’s delegation, Mr. Minh asked for the Ministry of Construction to consider and have a plan to remove difficulties to achieve the goal of building 1 million social housing units as directed by the Prime Minister.

Vuong Duy Dung, Deputy Director of the Department of Housing and Real Estate Management under the Ministry of Construction said that the Prime Minister is very interested in social housing development and has assigned the Ministry of Construction to coordinate with ministries, sectors and localities to create conditions for social housing development. The Ministry of Construction is presiding over the development of a process to shorten administrative procedures in selecting investors and implementing social housing projects to save time on capital mobilization and encourage social resources to participate in this field.

Mr. Dung also requested localities to issue specific plans to lead and direct the development of social housing projects. Localities need to proactively allocate funds, organize site clearance and have clean land fund to deploy social housing projects; organize auctions, bids, select investors with financial potential and experience, deploy with publicity and transparency ensured, increase the rate of guarantee for deposits to ensure the selection of potential investors. In addition, localities need to urge investors of commercial housing projects and urban areas to implement social housing projects on the land fund of 20% of these projects under the approved schedule. In addition, localities need to have specific mechanisms and solutions to shorten administrative procedures for project formulation and approval, land allocation, site clearance and construction investment procedures to support and encourage enterprises to invest in social housing projects, create supply for the market and take advantage of preferential capital to develop social housing projects.

He added: "The Ministry of Construction is advising the Government on promulgating a decree related to social housing, including specific regulations about subjects to rent and buy social housing apartments, procedures and documents to rent and buy social housing apartments... as a basis to promote social housing projects in the coming time".

Reported by Phuong Le-Translated by Kim Tin