According to some experts, with the current selling price, social housing is no longer for the majority of workers. Illustrative photo, source – Int
According to Mr. Anh, the problem of credit policy for social housing at present is not about high or low interest rates but rather unreasonable in building general housing policies.
TS. Vu Dinh Anh believes that if the social housing buyers meet the current purchasing conditions, they may not be able to buy even with a 0% interest loan because their income is just enough (or even not enough) to live on, so they cannot repay the principal, let alone pay the interest rate of 6-7% / year.
Accordingly, Mr. Anh believes that with such low income, in the current context of difficult economy, high inflation pushing up living costs from tuition fees, electricity, water, gasoline, … to medical services are all increasing at present, the housing problem for the people who are eligible to buy social housing at present can only be to rent houses and the state should support them to rent cheap houses instead of selling cheap houses to them.
Besides, according to Mr. Anh, from a business perspective, Investors in social housing projects may be at risk of violating when approving wrong target housing sales because they cannot sell houses to the right target as the majority of those who are eligible have no longer met the requirements to buy.
Therefore, Mr. Anh proposes that the current social housing program needs to be changed in the direction of state support for enterprises in terms of land and capital to build projects, while supporting low-income groups so they can rent social houses at affordable prices. This support should be non-refundable and not even preferential loans.
Struggling with credit for social housing
Recently, the Government, the Ministry of Construction, the State Bank and localities have continuously made efforts to promote social housing development, especially focusing on achieving the goal of 1 million social housing units by 2025.
However, one of the biggest bottlenecks is credit, according to the Minister of Construction, 28 provinces have announced a list of 68 projects eligible for loans under the 120,000 billion VND credit package with a loan demand of over 30,000 billion VND. However, only 6 social housing projects in 5 localities have been disbursed with a capital of about 415 billion VND.
The head of the Construction Industry also frankly admitted that there are still many difficulties in implementing the 1 million social housing project, such as: Many localities are slow in implementing the plan, even some places have no new construction projects; The disbursement of the preferential credit package of 120,000 billion VND is still slower than desired and practical needs of enterprises that invest in social and workers’ houses; There are still difficulties of enterprises investing in social houses, workers’ houses in accessing land, investment procedures, credit, preferential policies, …
Recently, at the conference to implement the investment project to build at least 1 million social housing units, when talking about the 120,000 billion VND credit package, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha evaluated that the money issue is very important. Currently, the 120,000 billion VND credit package is disbursed “extremely slowly, stagnant”.
Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha also affirmed that the project to build 1 million social housing units is a humanitarian policy, reflecting the good nature of our society in taking care of people and realizing the constitutional provision that all citizens have the right to housing.
“The policy of 1 million social housing units is only an initial pilot, so we need to solve the existing problems and difficulties to form a comprehensive mechanism and policy to serve the big task in the future which is to guarantee access to housing for all people” – Deputy Prime Minister emphasized.
After the conference on the project of 1 million social housing units, experts expect that the financial issue for this type of housing will soon have positive changes when Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha emphasized “I agree that we have a stable financial source, the state plays a leading role, businesses will also participate. The 120,000 billion VND credit package is just the beginning, we need to have a budget, a source of vouchers to add to the preferential package, …”.
