At the meeting ( Photo: SGGP)
Today, the Ho Chi Minh City National Assembly deputies delegation had a meeting to supervise the implementation of the Housing Law in the city for the 2016-2021 period to the branch of the State Bank of Vietnam in HCMC and the branch of the Bank for Social Policies in HCMC, the Department of Construction and Department of Natural Resources and Environment.
At the conference, Huynh Thanh Khiet, Deputy Director of Ho Chi Minh City Department of Construction, said that in the period 2016-2021, nearly 15,000 apartments in 19 social housing projects were completed. In the next phase between 2021 to 2025, the southern metropolis planned to implement 25 projects with a total of more than 28,600 apartments.
With nearly 15,000 apartments in 19 social housing projects, Ho Chi Minh City can satisfy the housing needs of a part of low-income people, civil servants, and public employees with housing difficulties. Accordingly, the number of social housing has not yet met the huge housing needs of people, especially low-income earners.
The leader of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Construction suggested that it is necessary to review the inconsistent legal regulations related to the content of housing development because, at present, many projects are slow or impossible to implement due to legal regulations.
In particular, the current investment procedures for social housing projects are more difficult than the regulations on investment and construction procedures for commercial housing projects, leading to a delay in implementation time; as a result, investors are not interested in building social houses.
Huynh Thanh Khiet, Deputy Director of Ho Chi Minh City Department of Construction
Mr. Huynh Thanh Khiet said that the implementation of a project takes more than one year and goes through many steps if investors follow the right process as per the present regulations. Therefore, Ho Chi Minh City petitioned for a simple process by shortening the implementation time for investment procedures of social housing projects.
Moreover, he proposed that the Government should decentralize the municipal People's Committee to consider and decide to adjust the project of commercial housing construction to social housing and housing for resettlement. This helps HCMC to proactively decide on feasibility when building houses in urban projects and housing development in consideration of the needs of each district.
Regarding the social housing loan program, Mr. Bui Van Son, Deputy Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Bank for Social Policies, said that in 2022, the Social Policy Bank will allocate and provide loans of VND15.7 billion (US$ 673,843). However, only VND500 million has been disbursed so far. In previous years, the capital that could not be disbursed had to be returned.
According to Mr. Son, the demand for loans to buy social housing in Ho Chi Minh City is very huge, while the supply of social housing in Ho Chi Minh City is limited and not enough. Some social housing projects in Ho Chi Minh City are behind schedule or suspended due to the impact of the recent Covid-19 epidemic.
In addition, customers have been facing difficulties in accessing loans to buy social housing. In addition, the current loan amount is VND500 million while the current price of social housing is more than VND1 billion, so many people find it difficult to access home loans.
Concluding at the conference, Ms. Van Thi Bach Tuyet, Deputy Head of the HCMC National Assembly deputies delegation said that all comments will be recorded for general synthesis and submitted to the National Assembly and the Government.
Regarding the Ho Chi Minh City Housing Development Fund (HOF), HOF Deputy Director Ngo Tan Phat said that in the 2016-2021 period, about 2,862 low-income people borrowed approximately VND 1,794 billion for buying social houses.
