Lack of social housing, resettlement housing is abandoned
In the next 5 years (2026 - 2030), Ho Chi Minh City sets a target to develop an additional 181,257 social housing units, 10 times the achieved results of the previous period. To achieve this huge number, Ho Chi Minh City recently proposed to the Government to allow the conversion of a part of the resettlement housing fund that is no longer needed and exploited inefficiently to social housing.
As of the beginning of June 2026, Ho Chi Minh City is managing 10,449 resettlement apartments belonging to public assets. Of which, there are 8,182 units that have not been arranged for use, including 3,790 units subject to auction. Most of the resettlement housing fund located in Ho Chi Minh City before the merger has been allocated to public investment projects and included in the compensation, support, and resettlement plan.
And a paradox that exists is that one side belongs to the resettlement housing fund that has been invested with very large resources but has been vacant for a long time; the other side is the housing needs of low-income people, workers, young officials and families who are not able to afford to buy commercial housing are still very high.
Typically, Binh Khanh resettlement area with 3,790 degraded apartments after many years of being vacant. Built from 2013 to 2015 to arrange housing for people subject to clearance in Thu Thiem New Urban Area, Binh Khanh resettlement area with 3,790 apartments has not been put into use to date while people and civil servants are very short of housing.
After more than a decade of being left vacant, many items at the project have fallen into serious degradation. Although not put into use, the city still has to spend tens of billions of VND each year on management, maintenance and repair, causing great waste of resources.
Not far from the resettlement area above, another project is Vinh Loc B resettlement area with an area of about 30 hectares started in 2008, with a total investment at that time of more than 1,000 billion VND. The project includes 45 apartment blocks with about 2,000 apartments and more than 500 land plots. The project also has schools, parks, supermarkets, and basic internal infrastructure used to arrange resettlement for people who were cleared from many old inner city districts.
But for many years, many apartments here have been abandoned without residents. Therefore, the project was once called a "typical failure" of resettlement housing in Ho Chi Minh City when the occupancy rate was very low. After many years of operation, only about 15% of apartments have residents. Many apartment blocks are vacant and degraded.
Converting functions to build social housing
In that context, Ho Chi Minh City's proposal to ask the Government to allow the conversion of a part of the resettlement housing fund that is no longer needed to social housing is a reasonable policy, which needs to be supported and soon have a mechanism to implement.
Mr. Le Hoang Chau, Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Real Estate Association, said that this is the right direction and the city needs to use the functions and purposes of this housing fund flexibly and effectively.
This proposal is also in line with the development requirements of social housing in the current period when Ho Chi Minh City is assigned to complete nearly 200,000 social housing units by 2030. In the context that time is running out, taking advantage of available housing funds is clearly a faster, more effective and more economical solution compared to building completely new ones.
Economic expert, Dr. Nguyen Duy Phuong, Director of DG Capital fund investment block, said that there needs to be a plan to comprehensively renovate and upgrade these resettlement housing funds to ensure housing standards.
In fact, some resettlement projects have problems with construction quality, design that is not really reasonable and construction that does not meet standards. These problems have reduced the value of resettlement apartments.
Many resettlement areas often lack basic infrastructure such as schools, hospitals, markets, and internal transportation systems, reducing the quality of life and convenience for residents. These issues have partly affected people's psychology and confidence in the quality of resettlement housing.
In particular, it is necessary to clarify the value of assets, the plan to handle the budget capital already invested, the mechanism for selling or leasing, maintenance responsibilities and criteria for considering beneficiaries. If there is conversion but the selling price or rental price still exceeds the affordability of low-income groups, the social security goal will not be achieved," Dr. Phuong stated his opinion.
