Research and implementation of the National Housing Fund model is necessary
In the context of skyrocketing real estate prices, it is very difficult for the poor, workers, low-income people, and civil servants to buy. Therefore, the proposal to establish a National Housing Fund to develop affordable housing is considered necessary by many experts.
Ms. Do Thu Hang - Senior Director, Research & Consulting Department, Savills Hanoi - commented that the National Housing Fund can be a solution to facilitate people's access to affordable commercial housing and social housing, increasing the ability of workers to own a house.
The National Housing Fund model can not only play a big role in solving housing problems, solving housing needs and stabilizing the lives of low-middle-income workers, but also promote the market to develop more sustainably.
If the National Housing Fund is approved and implemented, to promote efficiency, it is necessary to clearly identify the target, diversify capital sources and strengthen transparent management.
The fund needs to focus on financial support for people who want to buy or rent houses at suitable prices. In fact, many workers with low average incomes do not meet the conditions to buy social housing but do not have the financial capacity to own commercial housing, especially in large cities.
In addition to contributions from workers, businesses and the State budget, for the National Housing Fund to operate sustainably, it is necessary to encourage the participation of real estate businesses. In return, the State can apply preferential policies such as tax exemptions, financial support, etc. to attract investment in the social housing segment.
Ms. Do Thu Hang believes that for the National Housing Fund to operate effectively, there needs to be a strict and transparent management mechanism to avoid loss and corruption and ensure proper use.
Some solutions that can be applied include: issuing specific regulations on how to mobilize, manage and allocate funds; regulating housing standards to avoid poor quality construction; setting up binding conditions to prevent speculation and misuse; building a public electronic information portal on revenues - expenditures, beneficiary lists, project progress; and establishing an independent monitoring mechanism, allowing people as well as social organizations to monitor the fund's activities.
Factors to consider when building a National Housing Fund model
Ms. Giang Huynh - Director of Research and S22M, Savills HCMC - said that in many European countries (France, Germany, Sweden) and Asia (Korea, Singapore or China), the housing development fund model has been operated for decades to support people to access housing effectively. Some common points of these models are a clear legal framework, diverse capital mobilization, synchronous land fund and infrastructure planning, transparent governance, close supervision and synchronous coordination from all resources.
Countries that successfully apply this model all have laws and regulations specific to the operations of the Fund or housing development agency, helping to create a transparent and stable environment. In addition, the diversification of capital mobilization channels has also been actively implemented through the exploitation of many channels: the State budget, bond issuance, contributions from the private sector, international organizations, pension funds, etc. to ensure sustainable capital flows.
Successful models all have strong guarantees from the Government, stable financial mechanisms, transparent management, synchronous land planning and close coordination with the private sector. In some models, buyers contribute a fixed amount to the fund, along with certain binding requirements, to access preferential home loan policies.
Building a large model like the National Housing Fund requires taking into account many factors so that when implementing, there will be no problems and waste. Factors such as legal framework, management structure, capital sources, financial support mechanisms, public-private coordination, supervision mechanisms, etc. are all major issues that need to be clearly built.
