About to have a second child, Mr. Dang Huu Bao (Ha Dong, Hanoi) and his wife plan to move to rent a new apartment, instead of the current cramped rented room.
Mr. Bao currently works in an office with a salary of 15 million VND/month. His wife's salary is 12 million VND/month. With such a total income, they have almost no savings after deducting rent, children's tuition and monthly living expenses.
"My wife and I do not dare to dream of buying an apartment in Hanoi, we just hope to rent a suitable social housing unit" - Mr. Bao said.
However, the rental price framework for social housing that Hanoi has just issued has made Mr. Bao wonder. Accordingly, social housing invested in construction without public investment capital and trade union financial resources in the city has a rental price ranging from 48,000 VND to 198,000 VND/m2/month.
Thus, if Mr. Bao's family rents a 70m2 apartment for 110,000 VND/m2, his family will have to spend about 7.7 million VND/month to rent a house each month. Even the highest rental price can be up to 13.86 million VND for an apartment of the same area.
This price does not include: Value Added Tax; construction maintenance costs; management and operation service prices; costs for purchasing furniture and household appliances for rent in social housing; costs for purchasing fire and explosion insurance, parking costs, fuel use costs, energy, domestic water, television services, communications, remuneration for the Social Housing Management Board and other service costs for private use of owners and users of social housing.
"The above price is too high for low-income people like our family" - Mr. Bao said.
According to a survey by Lao Dong, the rental price of social housing in Hanoi is much lower than that of commercial apartment projects that have just come into operation. However, if compared with old apartments in the area, this price is not too attractive.
At a 38-storey apartment in Nam Tu Liem district, the rental price of a 70m2 apartment here fluctuates around 10 million VND/month. These are all apartments with full furniture, tenants can move in immediately. For apartments without furniture, the rental price is only 12 million VND/month for a 110m2 apartment.
A 70m2 apartment in Thanh Xuan district is currently being rented for 10-12 million VND/month. In a 3-storey apartment in Hoang Mai district, the rental price of a 60m2 apartment is about 7-8 million VND/month. All of these apartments are committed to being fully decorated.
Talking to Lao Dong, Mr. Nguyen The Diep - Vice President of Hanoi Real Estate Club - said that for social housing, the most reasonable rental rate is equal to or lower than 50% of the rental price of commercial housing.
Accordingly, the minimum rental price is only about 2-3 million VND/month and the maximum is 5-6 million VND/month for an apartment that is enough for a family of 4 to live in (from 70-80m2).
"With a maximum rental price of up to 198,000 VND/m2, low-income people cannot access social housing rental. Social housing with rental prices equal to commercial housing will not be rented" - Mr. Diep emphasized.
The social housing rental price framework in Hanoi applies from April 14 as follows:
- Houses with less than or equal to 10 floors, the minimum rental price is 48,000 VND and the maximum rental price is 96,000 VND/m2 of floor space/month.
- Houses with 11 to 20 floors, the minimum rental price is 55,000 VND and the maximum rental price is 110,000 VND/m2 of floor space/month.
- Houses with 21 to 30 floors, the minimum rental price is 75,000 VND and the maximum rental price is 150,000 VND/m2 of floor space/month.
- A house with more than 30 floors, the minimum rental price is 99,000 VND and the maximum rental price is 198,000 VND/m2 of floor space/month.
