Social housing development in Hai Duong. Part 1: Who is living in social housing?

Not necessarily low income

Social housing is housing for certain groups of people such as: people with revolutionary contributions, poor and near-poor households in rural areas; low-income people, poor and near-poor households in urban areas... In Hai Duong, the demand for social housing is still high. However, in reality, people with not-so-low incomes still find ways to circumvent the law to live in social housing. Some places are built but left empty, causing waste.

Ms. VTH is the owner of an apartment in the Nhi Chau social housing building (Hai Duong city), also known as Bach Dang apartment building. Although her family met the criteria, Ms. H. had to work very hard to buy this house. When Ms. H. bought this house, she had to pay a higher price, adding 25 million VND in difference when buying through an agent, bringing the total amount to nearly 900 million VND for a 57 m2 apartment (excluding tax). The apartment building Ms. H. bought the apartment in has more than 200 apartments, with areas ranging from 55 - 67 m2, with prices depending on location, view direction... Most of the apartments here already have owners, but it is very difficult to determine whether the residents and owners of these apartments on paper are the same person or not. There are even foreigners who come here to rent.

In the role of a home buyer, the reporter joined many groups on social networks and found the group "Buying and selling Bach Dang apartments" with nearly 2,000 members. The group has a lot of information about buying, selling and renting apartments. This project has been sold out through agents, but in reality, the transfer and rental market here is still bustling. According to the 2023 Housing Law and Decree 100/2024/ND-CP, those who are allowed to buy social housing must use it for at least 5 years before being able to transfer it. Or within a period of less than 5 years, from the time of paying off the social housing purchase, if there is a need to resell, they can only resell to the investor of the social housing construction project (in the case of buying housing invested with non-budgetary capital) or resell to subjects who are entitled to social housing support policies. The maximum selling price is equal to the selling price of this social housing in the purchase contract with the investor.

This project has only handed over apartments to residents for about 2 years, but the current market price for each apartment is several hundred million VND higher than the original price.

Around 2016, the residential area in Tue Tinh urban area was the first apartment building in the province built for sale to low- and middle-income people. The project consists of two apartment buildings, CT1 with 8 floors and CT2 with 15 floors, built with the goal of helping low-income people buy a house to "settle down and make a living". But in reality, the number of low-income people who can actually buy these houses is only a part. "If we calculate the actual income, my husband and I are not eligible to buy social housing, but buying a house on the ground is beyond our ability. Therefore, we asked an acquaintance who is qualified to register to buy for us. After the prescribed time, we were officially able to transfer the ownership of this house", said Ms. THH, who is living in Tue Tinh apartment.

In fact, some people, like Ms. THH's family, have asked qualified people to buy on their behalf.

Uninhabited place

In 2007, the apartment building project for workers in Dai An residential area was built by Dai An Joint Stock Company as the investor. According to the initial plan, the investor will build 8 apartment buildings, each with 5 floors, to meet the housing needs of workers working in and outside the industrial park. Because these buildings are planned in Dai An residential area, they are fully equipped with accompanying facilities such as fire prevention and fighting systems, K+ television, playgrounds, etc.

However, by 2015, the investor had to apply for project adjustment for this land to avoid waste due to no one moving in.

By the end of August 2024, there was only a 5-storey building with an area of ​​2,500m2 of floor space for workers. However, due to not being put into use, the facilities have seriously degraded. The walls are patchy, the glass doors are broken, and weeds are growing wildly on the floors... "Since I moved here, I have seen that the building is uninhabited. It is also unclear whether the investor is selling or renting. The whole building is abandoned while workers still have to rent houses, which is a waste," said a resident near the building.

According to our observation, the location of the housing area is deep inside the industrial park, not convenient for workers' travel and living...

In Hai Duong City, there is also a social housing project for workers built near Nam Sach Industrial Park, Ai Quoc Ward (Hai Duong City) by Investment and Construction Joint Stock Company No. 18 (Licogi 18) as the investor. This building has 5 floors, 82 apartments, each apartment area is from 40-68m2 with a total floor area of ​​5,670m2. The investor implements 2 business forms: sale and rental. In contrast to Dai An residential area, this area is quite convenient in terms of transportation, close to the market, school and ward center. However, the number of people coming to buy or rent is not much. That is why up to now this project only has one building and cannot be expanded further...

According to the province's housing development program, in the 2024-2025 period, about 2,250 low-income people, civil servants and public employees in the province will need social housing. This program also aims to solve the housing needs of 17,000 workers with about 4,250 apartments, of which Hai Duong city has more than 2,700 apartments, Cam Giang district has more than 1,200 apartments, Chi Linh city has more than 500 apartments...

It can be seen that the demand for social housing in the province is very large. However, where to build and how to build to suit the needs and the right subjects must be clarified so that these projects can be truly effective.

Lesson 2: Many projects, implementation must be drastic