“Streamlined and Superior: How Special Mechanisms Slashed Over 1,000 Days Off Social Housing Procedures.”

At the seminar, Deputy Minister of Construction Nguyen Van Sinh shared that the Ministry of Construction has proactively advised and submitted to the Government and subsequently to the National Assembly for consideration. It is gratifying that on May 29, 2025, the National Assembly passed Resolution No. 201 on piloting special mechanisms for social housing development.

“This can be considered a breakthrough resolution to remove obstacles and streamline the process of investing in social housing development, as well as address difficulties arising in practice,” emphasized Mr. Sinh.

Among the notable mechanisms and policies is the reduction and reform of administrative procedures in social housing investment procedures, aiming to cut red tape and shift from pre-inspection to post-inspection.

According to Deputy Minister Nguyen Van Sinh, the Resolution has reduced and reformed the following administrative procedures: First, eliminating the procedure for bidding to select investors and the approval of investment proposals as stipulated in investment laws. Instead, investors will be directly assigned without bidding, cutting down approximately 200 days, equivalent to 70% of the time required under current regulations.

Second, removing the step of establishing, evaluating, and approving detailed planning tasks, resulting in a reduction of 65 days compared to existing rules.

Third, abolishing the procedure for evaluating the feasibility study report on construction investment at construction specialized agencies, reducing 15-35 days.

Fourth, eliminating the requirement for open bidding for construction packages and allowing the application of a simplified direct bidding process, cutting down 45-105 days.

Fifth, exempting the need for a construction permit for projects using standard or typical designs, saving 20-30 days.

Sixth, removing the requirement for price approval or rental purchase of social housing at provincial-level specialized agencies. Instead, investors will set and approve the prices, and after completion and handover, they will conduct an audit and settlement, submitting the documents to the provincial-level specialized agencies for inspection. This measure alone reduces the process by at least 30 days compared to current practices.

Mr. Le Hoang Chau also believed that the group of policies with outstanding special mechanisms is the radical innovation of the investment procedure for social housing projects.

“As the Prime Minister has pointed out, and as Deputy Minister Sinh has just concluded, the resolution will reduce the process by 350 days for social housing. This calculation is based on the time frames specified in the government’s regulations. Still, in reality, we have observed a reduction of more than 1,000 days, shortening the process by over three years for social housing projects,” said Mr. Chau.

He added that they had encountered obstacles right from the first step of obtaining approval for the investment proposal.

“The procedure for approving investment proposals was only amended by the National Assembly and the Government in 2024, so it has not been widely implemented yet. But with this Resolution, many procedures, especially the approval of investment proposals, have been streamlined.

Moreover, the approval of investors under the 2020 Law on Investment has been a bottleneck due to the requirement for compliance with detailed planning and subdivision planning at a scale of 1/2000. This hurdle blocks the next step of approving the detailed planning at a scale of 1/500.

When reviewing the 1/500 scale plan, we faced another obstacle regarding population scale compliance. For example, if a commercial housing project on one hectare of land typically comprises 1,000 units, with a minimum size of 25 square meters and a maximum of 200-300 square meters, a social housing project on the same area must have 1,500-1,600 units to be viable. However, this exceeds the population limit, and without adjusting the subdivision planning at a scale of 1/2000, we cannot get approval for the 1/500 plan,” shared Mr. Chau.

He assessed that Resolution 201 has well-designed transitional provisions that address many practical difficulties that previous resolutions and legal documents had paid little attention to. This resolution brings joy to businesses as it resolves these long-standing issues.