The Ministry of Construction is researching the establishment of a 'national housing fund'.

Recently, General Secretary To Lam mentioned that Vietnam needs to establish a "National Housing Fund" to develop low-cost housing in large cities. This is also a solution to promote urban areas to become the driving force of national growth.

At the Government press conference on March 5, Director of the Department of Housing and Real Estate Market Management (Ministry of Construction) Tong Thi Hanh said that at the regular Government meeting this morning, the Minister of Finance proposed assigning the Ministry of Construction to study this matter.

"Up to now, the Ministry of Construction has assigned specialized units to urgently study international experience, review regulations and propose solutions on establishing a National Housing Fund to develop low-cost housing in large cities," said Ms. Hanh.

Accordingly, the Department's specialized units are assigned to research from the planning stage, housing development program plan to project implementation. "This is so that after receiving official instructions from the Government and competent authorities, the Ministry of Construction will soon develop a project, ensuring progress and quality," said Ms. Hanh.

The market is lacking in affordable housing supply. Previously, many agencies and organizations proposed to establish a number of funds to help people have the opportunity to own houses. For example, the Real Estate Brokers Association proposed that the Government study the establishment of a fund to support the development and maintenance of the supply of low-cost apartments. This fund could be supplemented from the state budget and from private investors.

Last year, in Directive 34 on strengthening the Party's leadership in the development of social housing in the new situation, the Secretariat directed research on the establishment of a social housing development fund or a suitable financial institution model for long-term, sustainable social housing development. Previously, the Government leader assigned a number of ministries and branches to research a plan to establish a social housing fund, allowing businesses to mortgage assets formed on land to borrow credit capital.

In addition to establishing a housing fund, Vietnam aims to have 1 million social housing units by 2030. From 2021 to present, according to the Ministry of Construction, the country has 655 social housing projects implemented with a scale of 593,428 units. Of these, only 103 projects have been completed with a scale of more than 66,755 units. 137 projects have started construction with over 114,618 units. The remaining 415 projects have been approved for investment policies, which will provide more than 412,200 units if completed.

The total disbursed amount under the 120,000 billion VND preferential loan program for social housing is 2,845 billion VND. This amount includes 2,580 billion VND for investors in 20 projects and 265 billion VND for home buyers in 15 projects.

According to Director Tong Thi Hanh, the social housing development target has been included in the local socio-economic development target system, according to Directive 34 of the Secretariat. To date, 10 localities have implemented this. Along with that, about 30 localities have issued plans to implement the Project of 1 million social housing units. Localities have planned 1,309 locations, with a scale of 9,737 hectares of land for social housing.