HCMC to cut social housing approval time by 75 pct

The current length of 17 months does not encourage developers to invest in social housing, which the city is seeking to boost, the city’s chairman, Phan Van Mai, said at a recent meeting.

Each department would have a deadline, and whichever delays the process would be held responsible for it, he warned.

Last week, deputy director of the city Department of Construction, Huynh Thanh Khiet, said the administrative procedures for social housing are too long and complicated, which causes property companies to lose interest.

There are more difficulties in developing social housing projects than commercial ones, he added.

Thirteen projects for which land has been acquired and cleared have not been able to begin construction.

HCMC, the country’s biggest city, developed over 1.2 million square meters of social housing between 2016 and 2020, enabling 66,000 people to have a home.

These are in 19 projects, but only one of them was built for workers.

The city has 1.3 million workers requiring housing, but apart from 3 percent of them who live in dormitories in industrial parks, most live in small rented houses.