Ho Chi Minh City Real Estate Association (HoREA) has just issued Document No. 88/2026/CV-HoREA contributing opinions to the Draft Law on Housing (amended).
Accordingly, HoREA proposed to remove the regulation "in cases where they have enjoyed the policy of buying or leasing social housing, they are not allowed to buy or lease commercial housing at a reasonable price" and allow the resale of commercial housing at a reasonable price "within 5 years from the date of receiving the house handover in cases of force majeure according to the provisions of law" in Clause 1 and Clause 2, Article 31 of the draft Housing Law (amended).
Explaining this proposal, HoREA said that the goal of the policy of developing affordable commercial housing is to solve housing needs for two groups of subjects including people with average incomes and urban low-income people who do not meet the conditions to buy or rent social housing.
Meanwhile, currently the real estate market is very lacking commercial housing with prices suitable for the affordability of middle-income and low-income urban people.
HoREA proposed not to stipulate "in cases where they have enjoyed the policy of buying or renting-purchasing social housing, they are not allowed to buy or rent-purchase commercial housing at a reasonable price" because currently the supply of social housing is very scarce, so if waiting for their turn to buy social housing, it may take many years. In fact, there are some subjects who are eligible to buy social housing but because they have additional financial resources or are financially supported by relatives and friends, they have a need and the ability to buy or rent-purchase commercial housing at a reasonable price.
HoREA believes that allowing these subjects to buy and rent-purchase commercial housing at reasonable prices is very necessary and good for society, because it both "less subsidizes" the State and reduces the number of subjects buying and renting-purchasing social housing, while reducing pressure on social housing development plans. Because, after owning commercial housing at reasonable prices, this person will no longer be the subject of buying and renting-purchasing social housing.
Therefore, the Association proposes to remove the regulation "in cases where they have enjoyed the policy of buying or renting social housing, they are not allowed to buy or rent commercial housing at a reasonable price", and at the same time believes that this regulation needs to be abolished because it is in line with reality.
Along with that, HoREA realizes that Clause 2, Article 31 of the draft Law on Housing (amended) stipulates that "the buyer or lease-purchaser of commercial housing at a price consistent with the provisions of Clause 1 of this Article from the investor is not allowed to resell the house within a minimum of 5 years from the date of receiving the house handover" is very necessary to ensure that the right subjects have real housing needs and avoid the situation of "policy profiteering".
However, according to HoREA, in reality, there are cases where buyers and lease-purchasers of commercial houses at reasonable prices fall into a "force majeure situation according to the provisions of law". Therefore, the Association believes that it is necessary to allow these cases to resell houses within 5 years from the date of receiving the house handover, in order to ensure humanity, reasonableness, and rationality.
