Surveying Thu Duc City, reporters recorded a sharp increase in social housing prices after several years. HQC Binh Trung Dong apartments are currently being offered for sale at 34-37 million VND/m2, nearly double the 19-22 million VND/m2 in 2021. Many other projects also have prices approaching traders, such as Felix Homes (Go Vap) from 30-45 million VND/m2, Green River (Q.8) from 35.8-45.9 million VND/m2, an increase of 3 times after 7 years.
The increase in social housing prices in Ho Chi Minh City is posing a big challenge for low-income people in accessing suitable housing. The main reason is that the supply of social housing is too scarce.
Statistics from the Ho Chi Minh City Real Estate Association (HoREA) show that by 2024, Ho Chi Minh City has only implemented about 6,000 social housing units, reaching 8.6% of the plan for the period 2021-2030, expanding nationwide, and has only completed 57,652 units, reaching 5.7% of the plan.
In the past year, a series of social housing projects have continued to stagnate due to procedural problems after a huge start. The Le Thanh Tan Kien social housing project in Binh Chanh district, Ho Chi Minh City was held in August 2024 and the investor, Le Thanh Company, is expected to complete it in 2026, providing the market with 1,445 social housing units for 49 years of lease, with an average area of 45-50m2. However, the project has not yet been able to proceed with construction because the project has not yet completed the procedures.
The main reason is that the detailed planning approval process at a scale of 1/500 and the construction permit was too long. Each time the dossier is adjusted according to the requirements of departments, branches, and enterprises, they have to wait an additional 1-2 months to get feedback. This process is repeated over and over again, causing businesses to "wait for a long time".
In 2024, when the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee held the Conference on Promoting Investment in Social Housing Construction for the first time, 21 enterprises registered to invest in social housing construction at land funds created by enterprises with about 52,000 apartments.
However, up to now, according to research, most of these projects are on paper or new in the investment research stage. According to many businesses, the investment application process for social housing projects requires businesses to go through many stages, from determining land prices, land use fees to applying for tax exemptions and reductions, the long approval time leads to many projects being behind schedule.
Legal procedures lasted up to 5 years, causing social housing projects to be behind schedule, increase capital and increase financial costs - all of which are included in the selling price, pushing up the cost. The problem of social housing cannot only rely on businesses, but needs to change from policies and administrative processes. Only when procedures are shortened can businesses speed up progress and reduce costs to bring reasonable prices to buyers.
