The implementation of the Housing Development Program and Plan and the Investment Project to build at least 1 million social housing apartments in the 2021-2030 period has not met requirements, and most localities have not completed the targets according to the results of the National Assembly's Supervision Report.
One reason mentioned is that the implementation of social housing projects by investors is still facing difficulties due to complicated procedures and some overlapping and inconsistent regulations, leading to congestion in project implementation.
According to Ms. Dang Thi Kim Oanh - Chairwoman of the Board of Directors of Kim Oanh Group, Kim Oanh Real Estate Group (Kim Oanh Group) is planning to develop 26 social housing projects with a total of 40,000 apartments, with a total land fund area of 107 hectares.
Kim Oanh Group's leaders said that issues related to land funds are still a major obstacle for businesses when investing in social housing: According to regulations, commercial housing projects must set aside 20% of land funds to build social housing.
However, the allocation of this land fund to enterprises or localities is still unclear, and there needs to be transparency in land valuation between land funds allocated by the State and land funds purchased by enterprises themselves.
Citing Kim Oanh Group's project in Binh Duong, Ms. Oanh said that the origin of this land is industrial park land that has been approved to be separated into a residential area and has been approved for a 1/500 planning.
Based on the industrial park land price of 170 USD/m2, the value of the project land is about more than 1,000 billion VND, but if applying the current land price for commercial housing, it will be up to more than 3,000 billion VND, an increase of about 3 times. This is a huge barrier to the development of social housing projects.
Another issue that Kim Oanh Group leaders pointed out is legal procedures. Although there are separate regulations for social housing, in reality, administrative procedures have not been shortened, leading to a longer project completion time, which affects the investment efficiency of the business.
Also facing the same difficult story about legal procedures is the case of Le Thanh Trading Company Limited, a unit specializing in implementing social housing in Ho Chi Minh City.
The Le Thanh Tan Kien social housing project (phase 1) in Binh Chanh district, invested by this company, has just officially started construction after many years of "stasis" due to planning problems.
"Just for legal procedures alone, it will take us about 5 years to complete," said Mr. Le Huu Nghia - Director of Le Thanh Company, adding that it is expected that in the next 4 months, the Le Thanh Tan Tao 2 project in Binh Tan district will have its legal procedures cleared to start construction.
Talking more about some solutions to achieve the goal of developing 1 million social housing units in the 2021-2030 period, in addition to the policy recommendations of the National Assembly Supervision Delegation, Mr. Le Hoang Chau, Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Real Estate Association, proposed that the National Assembly consider amending and supplementing the Law on Value Added Tax, the Law on Corporate Income Tax, and stipulating preferential tax policies for investors of social housing projects for rent only in the direction of reducing 70% of the VAT rate to 3% and reducing 70% of the corporate income tax rate to 6% to encourage businesses to invest in developing social housing for rent.
Regarding loan interest rates, Mr. Chau suggested considering a reduction so that social housing project investors can borrow preferentially at interest rates of 3.6% or 5.76% per year and social housing buyers and renters can borrow preferentially at interest rates of 3% or 4.8% per year, which is appropriate.
