National Housing Fund
On May 20th, authorized by the Prime Minister, Minister of Construction Tran Hong Minh presented a proposal for a resolution by the National Assembly on piloting several mechanisms and special policies for social housing development.
Minister of Construction Tran Hong Minh. Photo: Ho Long
A key proposal is the establishment of a National Housing Fund, a non-budgetary state financial fund formed at the central and local levels. The fund will be sourced from government allocations, voluntary contributions, and donations from organizations and individuals, both domestic and foreign, to invest in the construction of social housing for rent or purchase by government employees, public servants, and workers.
The resolution also proposes to assign investors and approve investment policies for social housing projects that do not use public investment funds without going through a bidding process (Article 5 of the draft resolution).
The People’s Committees of the provinces will be responsible for assigning or approving investors for social housing projects. The decision to approve the investment policy and assign the investor will serve as the basis for land allocation, land lease, and land use purpose conversion.
Streamlining Administrative Procedures
Regarding the investment procedures for social housing (Article 7 of the draft resolution), the requirement for feasibility study report appraisal will be eliminated.
Enterprises, cooperatives, unions, government agencies, and public non-business units will be allowed to rent social housing and worker accommodation in industrial zones for their employees, with the rental costs recognized as production and business expenses or regular operating expenses.
Notably, if the draft resolution is passed by the National Assembly, it will result in a reduction of 70% to 100% in administrative procedures for social housing development.
For instance, the process of approving investment policies and assigning investors without bidding, as proposed in Article 5, will take a maximum of 75 days, reducing the current process by about 200 days or 70%.
Eliminating the requirement for task and detailed planning appraisal (Article 6) will save 65 days, while removing the feasibility study report appraisal (Article 7) will save 15-35 days. Implementing a simplified direct contracting process (Article 7) will take around 15 days, compared to 60-90 days for domestic bidding and 90-120 days for international bidding, resulting in a time savings of 45-105 days.
Using standard designs and exempting projects from obtaining a construction permit (Article 7) will save 20-30 days. Streamlining the process for determining sales and rental prices (Article 8) will result in a time reduction of 30-90 days.
The draft resolution decentralizes decision-making by empowering local governments, the Ministry of National Defense, and the Ministry of Public Security to approve investment policies and assign investors for social housing projects for military and public security personnel.
This resolution is expected to be passed during the ongoing 9th session of the 15th National Assembly.
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