Speaking at the seminar "Real Estate Credit, How to Control Development" on April 17, 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 assigned to 9 commercial banks to implement. This package has an interest rate lower than market interest rates, is not included in the credit room, and applies to both investors and homebuyers with a loan term of up to 20 years.
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 put the business in a dilemma.
We propose that management agencies need to quickly have solutions to remove obstacles for social housing investors, specifically to be able to flexibly adjust lending with current market interest rates. Even businesses accept to borrow at commercial housing interest rates even though they know that this will increase costs. But it is better than not being able to implement the project because they cannot borrow money," Mr. Le Huu Nghia stated his opinion.
In the context of increasing demand for social housing in large cities, capital bottlenecks not only affect project progress but also directly curb the ability to expand supply. If the credit mechanism for the supply side, especially investors, is not soon removed, the goal of developing this segment on a large scale will be difficult to achieve as expected.
Mr. Le Hoang Chau - Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Real Estate Association - said that in the period 2021 - 2025, the city will only implement about 17,000 social housing units and the new assignment target must reach nearly 200,000 units in the period 2026 - 2030. Ho Chi Minh City has amended the income criterion from 20 million VND/month to 25 million VND/month for people who are eligible to buy social housing. This opens up many opportunities for subjects to access social housing.
However, the important issue is where the supply is? Citing the social housing project on Ly Thuong Kiet street with 1,025 apartments, of which 270 are for rent and more than 750 are for sale, but up to 12,000 people have registered to buy. Mr. Chau emphasized that there needs to be a mechanism to support businesses to develop commercial housing at reasonable prices alongside social housing.
In 2025, credit growth of the entire banking system is 19%, of which real estate is more than 24%. Mr. Chau said that real estate credit growth is always higher than the whole industry, so the regulation in 2026 that real estate credit does not increase higher than the industry's general level makes it difficult for businesses that have signed loan contracts to disburse, businesses that are being disbursed to disburse further, and individuals to access capital...
Banks need to have appropriate credit policies for real estate, both buyers and businesses developing commercial housing with reasonable prices to contribute to supporting the double-digit economic growth target this year," Mr. Le Hoang Chau stated his opinion.
