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Apartments for low-income earners in the town of Vinh Yen in the northern province of Vinh Phuc. – VNS Photo Tuan Anh |
HA NOI — Over 100 low-income housing projects are planned or under construction, but would-be residents are still waiting on specific guidelines on how to qualify for the more affordable accommodations.
Deputy Minister of Construction Nguyen Tran Nam said the number of projects reflected the great effort of businesses in executing the Government's public housing programme.
The programme, commenced last year, aims to provide affordable housing for 60 per cent of college and university students and a half of all industrial park workers by 2015. The country currently has about 1.5 million industrial park workers and 33 million students at universities and colleges.
Nguyen Quoc Tuan, deputy director of Ha Noi's construction department, said the number of students in the city would reach a million by 2015. Around 60 per cent would need dormitory housing, creating demand for 75,000 apartments at an occupancy of eight students per apartment.
Thirty projects for workers have begun, at a total estimated investment of VND2.6 trillion (US$134 million), according to the construction ministry. With a total area of 750,000sq.m, these projects are expected to provide accommodation for nearly 125,000 workers by next year.
Another 55,000 low-income earners have already been provided housing in 33 projects with a total area of 655,000sq.m, Nam said.
"Housing projects with prices of VND7-10 million ($360-515) per square metre in Ha Noi, even in the face of increasing building materials prices, can be seen as a positive sign to lower the average cost of housing closer to the people," he said.
A high annual urbanisation rate of 25 to 30 per cent resulted in a housing shortage in urban areas, Nam added, making the issue of affordable housing increasingly urgent.
Prices of VND350-500 million ($18-25,770) per 35-65sq.m apartment represent a huge burden on people with low incomes, Nam admitted.
"However, people will be able to pay through mortages over 20 years at favourable interest rates," he said, adding that it would be difficult to ask businesses to provide lower prices under current market conditions.
The ministry would continue to seek more preferential policies on land use rights, taxes and administrative procedures for enterprises taking part in public housing programmes, Nam said.
Builders would also be allowed to increase building density up to 1.5 times more than usual and borrow 70 per cent of the total costs of a project from the Viet Nam Development Bank, he added.
Nguyen Minh Tuan, deputy director of Viglacera, which is building 1,000 low-cost housing units in the capital city's Gia Lam District, said Viglacera had been given favourable conditions in developing public housing.
The time for administrative approvals of public housing projects has also been reduced sharply, Tuan said.
Prospective home buyers were still encountering difficulties buying low-cost housing, however.
Do Manh Hung of Ha Noi's Ha Dong District said he was still fumbling to complete the necessary procedures to buy a low-cost house in the Ngo Thi Nham project being developed by Vinaconex Xuan Mai Concrete and Construction Joint Stock Co.
"Criteria to define who is a low-income earner have not been stipulated," Hung said. "The city's construction department would not accept my application."
Nam agreed the reason was that some localities had not completed criteria to define people who were eligible for buying the houses.
Vinaconex Xuan Mai general director Dang Hoang Huy agreed that local governments had not yet promulgated regulations to clarify who was eligible to buy low-cost housing.
"Investors want to sell their apartments," said Huy. "The matter is that we should have complete planning."
Nam said the ministry would issue criteria defining eligibity for those with monthly incomes of less than VND5 million ($258). — VNS
