Ministry eyes construction of 1.4 million social housing units by 2030

In a proposal to the government, it said the main locations for developing social housing are Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang, Can Tho, and Hai Phong cities.

To speed up the task, it wants changes to be made to the laws on housing, land, bidding, and tax to spell out who will be eligible for social housing, regulate land allocation, identify developers, and offer incentives.

Administrative procedures would be eased, it said.

Social housing has been posing a headache to authorities in recent years since skyrocketing property prices have caused developers to focus on the mid- and high-priced segments and ignore low-income house buyers.

Though the government requires commercial project developers to set aside 20% of their land to build social housing, this provision has not been thoroughly enforced, the ministry said.

Meanwhile, government officials try to pass the buck to each other and the incentives offered are not attractive enough, it admitted.

So far 155,800 social housing units have been built and 454,000 more are under construction. The country is expected to need 2.4 million units by 2030.