Take a breath to find a house
For the past 3 years, Mr. Nguyen Huy Hoang, 32 years old, with his wife and 2 young children have rented a small house near Bac Thang Long Industrial Park (Hanoi). The apartment is only 10 square meters wide, with a loft as a sleeping space for two primary school children.
"Life is cramped and very makeshift - Hoang said - my husband and I earn more than 15 million VND/month, but we only save 5 million VND if we try very hard. While the cheapest house is also about 2 billion VND, not to mention the price is increasing. It turns out that even if I had to spend my whole life, I would not be able to buy a house.
Hoang is a typical example for the young generation of workers who are currently lacking in social housing.
The report of the Trade Union Workers' Institute released at the end of 2024 after surveying over 1,800 people in provinces and cities including Bac Giang, Ha Nam, Da Nang, Quang Tri, Tien Giang and Binh Duong showed that 39% of workers participating in the survey were living in houses/rests with an area of less than 20m2, of which 7.4% of workers were living in rooms under 10m2.
According to the survey, 71.4% of workers want a house of 30m or more. The area of 30 - 50m is suitable for couples and young children, while 50m or more meets the needs of families of 3-4 adults.
rays of hope
According to Deputy Minister of Construction Nguyen Van Sinh, the biggest bottleneck of social housing, especially for workers, is that many localities have not included this target in their socio-economic development plans, have not assigned specific tasks and increased the responsibility of departments and branches in implementing the goal of building more than 1 million social housing units. This is also one of the reasons why some localities, after more than 3 years, are still "empty-ended" on social housing projects such as Ninh Binh, Nam Dinh, Quang Binh, Quang Tri...
To remove this bottleneck, on February 27, the Prime Minister issued Decision No. 444/QD-TTg assigning targets for completing social housing in 2025 and the following years until 2030 for localities to add to socio-economic development targets. The Decision also mentions the responsibilities of ministries, branches, localities and heads of relevant units responsible for implementation.
The Prime Minister's Decision No. 444/QD-TTg is good news, opening up opportunities to access social housing for workers, especially young workers.
Also during this time, many localities have announced many social housing projects at much cheaper prices than the market. For example, in Hanoi, more than 1,100 social housing units have just started construction with a selling price of about 18.4 million VND/m2, including 5% VAT and 2% maintenance fee. This is the Thang Long Green City social housing project at plot CT3, Kim Chung urban area, Dong Anh district.
Or the Phu Lam social housing project built at Phu Lam clean industrial park (Phu Lam ward, Ha Dong district) has just announced the opening of 1,902 apartments for sale, of which the number of social housing apartments for sale is 1,126 apartments (accounting for 58.78% of the apartment area). The number of social housing units for rent includes 408 units (accounting for 21.36% of the apartment area). According to the target assigned by the Prime Minister, in 2025, Hanoi needs to complete 4670 social housing units, and from 2025 to 2030, Hanoi must complete 44,866 units.
To have a house for young people
There are targets, projects, and affordable prices, but the opportunity to access housing for young workers is not easy. According to Article 49 of the Housing Law No. 65/2014/QH13, there are currently 10 subjects eligible to buy social housing but there are no specific regulations on the criteria for "young labor".
This is an issue that the Prime Minister mentioned in Directive 05: "Continuing to research and implement preferential credit packages to promote economic growth drivers and for young people under 35 to buy houses".
The most important issue is the source of money to buy social housing. "The interest of young workers in buying a house is to get preferential loans at low interest rates, fixed and long-term, from 10-15 years from the bank. Because if the loan packages only apply incentives in the first few months, it will not really be meaningful, but only formal.
It is known that currently, some banks are also offering good support packages such as HDBank implementing a credit package of VND 30,000 billion with a loan term of up to 50 years. The starting interest rate is 4.5%/year for the first 3 months, with a maximum loan amount of up to 50 billion VND, disbursing 90% of the collateral value. Loc Viet Bank (LPBank) also announced a loan package of VND5,000 billion, applying a starting interest rate of only 3.88%/year for the first 3 months...
Notably, the preferential loan packages at banks announced at low levels are all short-term interest rates, after which the interest rates will be floating. This is what home buyers are worried about.
The Ho Chi Minh City Real Estate Association (HoREA) has proposed that the State Bank consider building a mechanism for young people who buy a first home to borrow credit at a reasonable commercial interest rate within 10-15 years to create a "push".
Mr. Le Hoang Chau, Chairman of HoREA, also noted that the majority of young people will have double or more than double income after about 10-15 years, so there is almost no risk for commercial banks to lend.
In order for young people to have a house in the spirit of Directive No. 05/CT-TTg, it is necessary to add new regulations and new criteria to the policy, especially new policies on loan support. Because young labor is also an important factor in completing the growth targets for 2025 and the following years.
