According to a report by the Ministry of Construction, as of February 28, 2026, the total outstanding credit balance for real estate business activities reached approximately 2.235 million billion VND, an increase of 11.7% compared to the fourth quarter of 2025 and up to 43% compared to the same period last year.
By segment, credit continues to focus mainly on urban and housing development groups.Notably, the item "other real estate business investment" is up to 666.678 billion VND, showing that capital flows are still flowing into many activities outside of traditional projects.
The State Bank has also repeatedly affirmed its operating viewpoint of not tightening real estate credit in an extreme way but will control it according to the level of risk of each segment.Capital flows are encouraged to flow into housing projects that meet real needs, especially social housing and affordable segments.
Meanwhile, according to feedback from real estate businesses, in fact, the story of accessing loans to develop projects in the current context is not easy, including building social housing.
Mr. Vo Quoc Duc - Director of Finance and Accounting Department - No Va Real Estate Investment Group Joint Stock Company (Novaland) - said that "tightening" credit room not only affects projects and investors but also affects the entire market chain.
Mr. Duc said that some projects from 2025 have signed credit contracts and applied for room, projects last about 5-6 years, usually the disbursement time is about 2-3 years.However, in 2026, banks report that disbursement is slow, only about 10 - 20%, or room has not been arranged...
Difficulty over difficulty when the project has not been granted a credit limit, although preliminary work with banks has been done, it is assessed as good and feasible, but it is very difficult to have a loan room this year. Or some banks have commitments but somewhere at 10 VND, only disbursing a maximum of 2-3 VND. This situation greatly affects projects that have been and are about to be implemented by businesses.
The State Bank needs to have a more flexible way of managing credit room. Previously, credit room was divided by year, now it is by quarter, a very short period of time makes banks passive, businesses are also passive and accordingly homebuyers are passive...", Mr. Vo Quoc Duc proposed.
Even businesses investing in social housing complain of difficulties because they cannot borrow capital to implement projects.
Mr. Le Huu Nghia - Director of Le Thanh Company - said that social housing is the most difficult borrowing object in real estate segments.
It is known that Le Thanh Company currently has a 2,000 billion VND project that has completed the foundation, but the implementation situation is "stalling" because it cannot borrow.Mr. Nghia said that the Government's 140,000 billion VND credit package is a preferential program for developing social housing and worker housing.
However, when this business contacted banks to apply for loans at the current preferential loan interest rate for social housing of 6.1%, it was refused. The reason given by banks is that the current deposit interest rate is too high, if lending at a rate of 6.1%, it will be a loss.
Even when the business proposed to borrow at the interest rate of commercial housing, the bank did not agree, because of concerns about prosecuting responsibility for lending to the wrong subjects. This has caused his business to fall into a dilemma.
According to financial expert, Dr. Nguyen Duy Phuong - Director of Financial Investment of DG Capital, the major weakness of real estate businesses is still dependence on bank credit. If the capital structure is not changed, businesses will find it difficult to develop sustainably due to the tightening and loosening cycle of credit tending to repeat every 4-5 years.
Current pressure is not too great but still contains risks, so long-term solutions are needed.The focus is on developing the capital market, especially corporate bonds, not only for real estate but for the entire economy.Diversifying capital mobilization channels is an urgent need in the coming time.
