Mr. Dinh Xuan Linh (character's name has been changed) left his hometown from Phu Tho to Hanoi to make a living for 20 years. At first, when he was single, he rented a room in a house built by the people themselves. After that, he got married and rented the whole family at CT1A building, the workers' housing area in Kim Chung commune (Dong Anh district, Hanoi).
The story of a house is always mentioned in the story of a young couple, but it always ends with a sigh. "We dare not dream of real estate; apartments for sale at commercial prices of up to tens of millions of VND/m2 are also out of reach" - Mr. Linh shared and said that he could only "pull up" on social housing.
Recently, near where he lives, a social housing project has been started with an initial announced price of 18.4 million VND/m2. This is information that he and his wife as well as many residents of the building are interested in.
Information about this project was also hotly discussed by workers' groups. Although he heard it everywhere, he did not know the procedures, documents, and price to be able to buy a house.
"On the day of the start of construction, I went out to see and heard that the investor would collect documents and post them on the investor's information pages; if there were any questions, I would call the hotline" - Mr. Linh said.
Mr. Linh's wife is a worker, earning 15-17 million VND/month; he works freely, earning 10 million VND/month; 20 million VND/month, but not much in the month. The income from freelance work makes him worried about how his income will be proven if he buys social housing.
Spending frugally, there are months when the couple saves the most, which is 10-15 million VND. Although the monthly savings are not small, he calculated that if the house was worth about 1.5 billion VND, he could not afford it. "Not to mention that once I have saved a certain amount of money, the house price can increase to another higher level" - Mr. Linh lamented.
Mr. Linh said that after many years of working in the fields, the couple saved nearly 300 million VND.
According to him, when he bought a house, he definitely had to borrow more money. "According to my calculation, if we have to pay the principal and interest of about 8 million VND or less a month, my wife and I can endure; and we will definitely have to live very frugally to have money to pay off our debts" - Mr. Linh said.
The couple is looking forward to a 59 m2 apartment. Thus, with the initial price of 18.4 million VND/m2, the amount he had to pay was nearly 1.1 billion VND. He said that if he needed it too much, he would have to ask his parents, but it certainly wouldn't be much, because his parents were farmers and had no conditions.
"If I buy social housing, I will consider the option of paying in installments using the State's support package, but I do not have a specific understanding of the policy" - Mr. Linh said.
20 years of living abroad, renting a room, but the dream of a house has not been reached. Mr. Linh believes that only with the State's support policies can workers dare to dream of social housing. If commercial housing on the market is 40-60 70 million VND/m2, workers will never dare to think about it.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh has just signed Decision No. 444/QD-TTg dated February 27, 2025, assigning the target of completing social housing in 2025 and the following years until 2030 for localities to add to the socio-economic development target.
Accordingly, the target for social housing in localities to be completed in the 2025 - 2030 period is 995,445 apartments.
