Social housing projects are lacking buyers
That is the case of the Chanh My social housing project (Chanh Hiep ward, Ho Chi Minh City). This project does not have a scene of people competing to submit home purchase documents. At the location where documents for purchasing social housing are received next to the project, very few people come to ask about the procedures.
The project started in September 2022, after nearly 3 years of implementation, the project has now built 3/6 blocks and is entering the completion stage. HUD Corporation said that 456 apartments in the 3 buildings are being completed. It is expected that from now until December 2025, the house will be accepted. Legally, according to HUD Corporation, the project has been approved for investment policy, granted a land use right certificate, appraised and approved for feasibility study report, construction drawings, and PCCC approval. The project has also issued a document confirming the eligibility to sell future housing for 456 apartments. The selling price of social housing apartments is nearly 17 million VND/m2 including VAT and maintenance costs. The smallest apartment is 38.5m2 with a price of about 700 million VND/apartment, the average apartment is 51.2m2 with a price of about 900 million VND/apartment.
The house is almost completed, however, the number of customers looking to buy a house is very small. On average, there are only about 20 sets of documents registered to buy per month. The total number of newly registered documents has reached about 200 sets of documents out of 456 apartments eligible for sale.
Another project, in an area near the factory with a large number of workers but also facing a lack of customers, is the Thang Long social housing project. This project has been topped out and is in the process of completion. It is expected that the apartments will be handed over at the end of 2026 and the beginning of 2027.
The apartment registration point is located right in front of the project, very deserted, with no workers lining up to submit their home purchase documents. Currently, the project is receiving applications to buy apartments in the second phase with 430 apartments. After 3 months of opening for sale, only about 150 sets of documents have registered to buy.
"Sometimes people call to ask about the project, there are very few cases of people coming to visit to complete the house purchase application. Only about 20-30 customers come to visit a month. There was no fever, social housing heat or crowded with buyers" - said the representative of the project distributor.
According to the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Construction, the project has been appraised for a selling price of 20.44 million VND/m2. A 1-bedroom apartment costs more than 600 million VND, a 2-bedroom apartment costs more than 800 million VND.
There are still shortcomings that make it difficult for buyers to complete their documents
The reason why social housing projects are deserted is partly due to the high price of houses compared to the majority of low-income workers.
Mr. Tran Trong Loi (from Ha Tinh) has been working and living in Ho Chi Minh City for more than 13 years but still cannot buy a house. "We also want to have a house to settle down and start a business, but the house price is too high, we cannot buy it" - Mr. Loi expressed.
In addition to the problem of prices, the location of social housing construction is also an issue that makes the majority of customers not interested in accessing. For example, the Chanh My social housing project, this area is about 5 - 10km from the factory. The habit of workers is to want to live near the workplace for convenient travel. Therefore, this project is more suitable for technical workers, office workers or workers in the State administration sector, but these subjects are few.
The implementation of the dossier also has many problems, causing the distribution unit to be short of customers. For example, freelance workers are among the group of subjects eligible to buy social housing. However, when making documents, it is difficult to confirm income. The authorities do not know how much the income of freelance workers is to confirm.
For retirees, if they have just retired, they can return to their old company or agency for confirmation. However, in cases of 3-4 year leave, changed agencies or dissolved companies, income cannot be confirmed.
Another problem when applying for social housing is proving income to borrow capital from a bank to buy a house. Students and poor and near-poor households are also eligible to buy social housing. These three groups of subjects find it difficult to prove their income to be eligible for loans. Students in the group who are studying are dependents, cannot have a labor contract or a stable source of income to be eligible for a bank loan. The same goes for poor households and near-poor households.
Binh Duong area (old) needs about 150,000 social housing units
The Binh Duong area (old) previously had 36 communes and wards with about 1.3 million workers. Most of them are illegal workers, even renting accommodation. According to the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Construction, the old Binh Duong area has about 129,212 people who need to buy social housing from now until 2030.
