The draft Law on Housing (amended) basically achieved high consensus.

Before proceeding with the discussion, the National Assembly Standing Committee listened to Chairman of the National Assembly's Law Committee Hoang Thanh Tung report on the explanation, reception and revision of the draft Law on Housing (amended).

According to Mr. Hoang Thanh Tung, on the afternoon of October 26, the National Assembly discussed the draft Law on Housing (amended) in the hall. Immediately after the meeting, implementing the direction of the National Assembly Standing Committee, the Standing Committee of the Law Committee closely coordinated with the drafting agency and relevant agencies to synthesize, explain, absorb and revise the draft law according to the opinions of National Assembly deputies.

Through synthesizing and absorbing the opinions of National Assembly deputies, the draft law has been accepted and revised in 6 major contents. That is, revising Article 57 on multi-storey, multi-apartment housing of individuals to overcome the shortcomings and limitations of the past, strengthening strict management but still ensuring to meet the needs of a part of the people for this type of housing; Stipulating that the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor is the governing body of investment projects to build social housing for workers and laborers who are eligible for social housing rental policies in Clause 4, Article 80.

Along with that, the regulations on incentives for investors of social housing projects at Point d, Clause 2, Article 85 are adjusted in the direction of inheriting the provisions of the current housing law to supplement the right to build commercial housing within the land fund of 20% of the total residential land area within the project, but the investor must pay land use fees for this area according to the provisions of the land law to both attract investment and strictly manage state budget revenue; regulations on the construction of workers' accommodation in industrial parks in Article 94; no regulations on workers' accommodation outside industrial parks; adding Clause 3, Article 95 on the investment project to build workers' accommodation in industrial parks must be approved by the Management Board of industrial parks in terms of investment policy and investor approval according to the provisions of the law on investment to ensure consistency with the Investment Law; a number of other major policy contents have been unanimously accepted and adjusted as shown in the draft law.

At this meeting of the National Assembly Standing Committee, the Standing Committee of the Law Committee asked for guidance from the National Assembly Standing Committee on a number of other major issues such as: public housing; management and use of public housing; additional subjects renting public housing; earlier implementation of the content on social housing in the Housing Law; implementation of the Housing Law (amended) and the Land Law (amended).

Accordingly, regarding the effective date of the Housing Law, it is agreed that the effective date of the Housing Law (amended) (and the Land Law (amended)) is from January 1, 2025 to have a basis for regulation in the draft Housing Law (amended) submitted to the National Assembly for approval. Mr. Hoang Thanh Tung said that determining the effective date is consistent with the Land Law (amended) (expected to be approved by the National Assembly at the latest at the 7th session (May 2024)) so that the Government can promptly issue detailed regulations and implementation instructions, meeting the urgent requirement of putting the law into practice.

Chairing the discussion session on the draft Law on Housing (amended), National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue said that so far the draft law has basically received and achieved high consensus from relevant agencies and organizations.

In addition to the issues that the Standing Committee of the Law Committee asked for opinions on, through studying the draft law, the Chairman of the National Assembly found that there were some contents that required further comments from the agencies, such as the provisions on prohibited acts in Clause 7, Article 3: "Prohibiting investors of housing construction projects from authorizing or assigning to parties participating in investment cooperation...".

National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue requested research agencies to review this content to avoid affecting the rights of investors and creating barriers when conducting housing transactions in the market.

Participating in the discussion, Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Tran Quang Phuong suggested having a long-term view in arranging public housing, ensuring consistent policies, in which armed forces and key personnel need to have appropriate priority policies.

Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Nguyen Khac Dinh said that access to public housing for officials is still limited and difficult to meet practical requirements. The draft law currently has a solution to this problem, but if the scope of use is expanded to all eligible subjects, there will not be enough public housing for the forces.

Speaking at the meeting, Minister of Construction Nguyen Thanh Nghi said that regarding the subjects renting public housing, the previous draft that the Government sent to the National Assembly Standing Committee did not have regulations on the conditions for renting public housing in remote areas. Currently, the new draft has expanded to include subjects such as deputy heads of provincial and district-level sectors, Vice Chairmen of District People's Committees, etc., who are arranged public housing.

Regarding the armed forces, the minister said the Government supports the addition of workers, civil servants of the Ministry of National Defense and key officers.

Regarding the content of the draft law's effectiveness, Minister Nguyen Thanh Nghi expressed his hope that the contents related to social housing will take effect sooner, to promote the development of social housing in the current conditions, when the supply of social housing is very lacking.

Speaking at the meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha said that the explanation of Minister of Construction Nguyen Thanh Nghi relatively fully expressed the Government's viewpoint on the law-making process.

Regarding social housing policy, the Deputy Prime Minister affirmed that it is necessary to continue studying and considering the regulation on 20% of commercial housing area in social housing areas. Although such regulations aim to attract socialized investment resources, there are also some unreasonable issues arising during the implementation process.

Concluding the discussion, National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue acknowledged that the acceptance of explanations was basically appropriate; at the same time, he suggested focusing on convincing explanations on some contents such as accommodation outside industrial parks or regulations on the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor as the investor of social housing...

Regarding some other contents, the National Assembly Chairman suggested carefully reviewing the transitional provisions and the time of application. Some contents such as those on social housing may come into effect earlier.