On the Ministry of Construction Information Portal, reader HD asked: "My wife and I have permanent residence registration in Tran Hung Dao ward, Hung Yen province.
The couple are low-income workers and are in need of buying social housing.
My husband and I already have land, on the red book it is in our name, but on the red book there is no house.
Through learning about the conditions for enjoying social housing support policies, according to Decree No. 54/2026/ND-CP amending and supplementing Clause 1, Article 29 of Decree No. 100/2024/ND-CP on housing conditions in the direction of expanding criteria for determining conditions of not having housing, including cases where there is no housing information in the red book and it does not depend on the time of submitting applications to buy or rent social housing.
At the same time, the authority to confirm is also regulated in a broader direction, which is to assign it to the competent authority to issue Certificates according to land law.
Specifically, the house and spouse of that subject (if any) are determined to have no name or no housing information content in the Certificate of land use rights, ownership of assets attached to land in the province or centrally-run city where that social housing project is located.
Thus, according to the new decree, my wife/husband meets the criteria for determining the condition of not having housing, right?
The Department of Housing and Real Estate Market Management, Ministry of Construction answers this issue as follows:
To be eligible to buy social housing, they must be eligible for social housing support policies and meet sufficient conditions (in terms of housing and income) according to the provisions of housing law, without stipulating conditions for residential land.
Point a, Clause 1, Article 78 of the 2023 Housing Law stipulates that housing conditions for subjects specified in Clauses 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 of this Law to be able to buy or lease social housing must meet the following conditions:
... subjects specified in Clauses 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 of Article 76 of this Law to be allowed to buy or lease-purchase social housing must not have housing owned by themselves in the province or centrally-run city where the social housing construction investment project is located, have not been allowed to buy or lease-purchase social housing, have not enjoyed housing support policies in any form in the province or centrally-run city where the social housing construction investment project is located, or have housing owned by themselves in the province or centrally-run city where the social housing project is located, but the average housing area per capita is lower than the minimum housing area".
Article 29 of Decree No. 100/2024/ND-CP (amended and supplemented in Decree No. 54/2026/ND-CP) stipulates the conditions for housing as follows:
The case of not having housing owned by oneself is determined when the subject specified in Clause 1, Article 77 of the Housing Law and the spouse of that subject (if any) are determined to have no name or no housing information content in the Certificate of land use rights, ownership of assets attached to land in the province or centrally-run city where that social housing project is located.
Within 07 days from the date of receiving the request for confirmation of housing conditions, the competent authority issuing the Certificate of land use rights, ownership of assets attached to land according to the provisions of land law in the province or centrally-run city where there is a social housing project certified according to the provisions of this clause".
In case the subject specified in Clause 1, Article 77 of the Housing Law has houses owned by themselves but the average housing area per capita is less than 15 m2 of floor space/person.
The average housing area per capita specified in this clause is determined on the basis of including: the applicant, their spouse, parents (if any) and children of that person (if any) registered permanently residing in that house.
Within 7 days from the date of receiving the application for confirmation of the average housing area per capita, the commune-level People's Committee shall carry out the confirmation for the cases specified in this clause".
Thus, in case citizens do not have a name or no housing information content in the red book in the province or centrally-run city where the social housing project is located, they meet the housing conditions to be able to buy social housing.
