The supply of social housing under the rental model in Ho Chi Minh City has just been supplemented with more than 1,400 units when Le Thanh Construction Trading Company Limited recently organized the groundbreaking ceremony for the Le Thanh Tan Kien social housing project in Tan Kien commune, Binh Chanh district.
The project provides 1,445 social housing apartments for 49-year lease, with an average area of 45-50m2, suitable for the needs of low- and middle-income people. The project is expected to be completed and put into use after 36 months of construction.
The target for social housing development in Ho Chi Minh City by 2030 is to invest in building 69,700 - 93,000 social housing apartments. As a result, in the period 2006-2010, Ho Chi Minh City built and put into use 2 projects with 118 apartments. In the period 2011-2015, there were 10 projects with 3,700 apartments; in the period 2016-2020, there were 19 projects with 15,000 apartments.
From 2021 to present, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Construction has also put into use 6 projects with a scale of 2,700 apartments and is constructing 4 projects with 3,000 apartments.
According to Mr. Bui Xuan Cuong - Vice Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee, the city will focus on reviewing and adjusting plans, including plans on housing development. This will create new conditions to attract investors to develop housing. The goal of Ho Chi Minh City by 2030 is to build nearly 70,000 social housing units. The Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee is currently removing obstacles so that from now until April 30, 2025, 6 social housing projects with about 6,000 apartments can be started.
In recent times, there have been many reasons for the long-term shortage of social housing supply , among which the most prominent are complicated legal procedures and lack of incentive and support mechanisms.
However, according to many experts, the 2023 Housing Law and Decree No. 100/2024/ND-CP of the Government detailing a number of articles of the Housing Law on the development and management of social housing (effective from August 1, 2024) have removed these bottlenecks, opening up more incentives for investors building rental housing and encouraging the private sector to participate in the construction of social housing.
Accordingly, the Housing Law 2023 requires localities to allocate land to develop social housing, overcoming the current shortage of land to develop this segment.
Decree 100/2024 also guides the provincial People's Committee to decide whether the investor of a commercial housing construction investment project must reserve a portion of the residential land area in the project that has invested in building a technical infrastructure system to build social housing, or arrange the social housing land fund that has invested in building a technical infrastructure system in a location other than the scope of the commercial housing construction investment project in that urban area, or pay money equivalent to the value of the land fund that has invested in building a technical infrastructure system to build social housing.
The process of implementing investment procedures for social housing projects will also be significantly shortened, helping investors save time and costs in implementing the project. In particular, investors do not have to carry out procedures for determining land prices, calculating land use fees, exempted land rents and do not have to carry out procedures for requesting exemption of land use fees and land rents.
Mr. Le Huu Nghia - General Director of Le Thanh Construction and Trading Company Limited, assessed that this is a very strong point, helping to remove obstacles for investors, speeding up the implementation of social housing projects. Because in the past, businesses wanting to build social housing had to carry out procedures related to determining land prices, land use fees, and land rent to apply for support. However, the procedures for requesting exemption from land rent and land use fees often took a long time, causing the project to be behind schedule.
