Ready to rent social housing, but the price must be reasonable
Ms. Lo Thi My Hanh has been a worker for 7-8 years. She and her 2 children are renting a room of about 20 square meters in Bau village (Kim Chung commune, Dong Anh district, Hanoi) for 1.5 million VND/month.
Previously, Hanh rented a room nearby, smaller in area, for 1 million VND/month. “I had to rent a new room to have a more spacious place to live, with space for the children to play. This new place is also close to the children's school, convenient for commuting,” said Hanh.
Working as a worker in the Yen Phong Industrial Park (Bac Ninh Province), she still rents a room in Hanoi to facilitate her children's education. "Both children are studying at public schools here, so I am willing to travel far to help them stabilize their studies," the female worker said.
Ms. Hanh said that workers far from home like her have very few options for accommodation, and will mainly stay in houses built by local people. “If there is social housing for rent, with an area of about 35-40m2 and a suitable rental price, my family will definitely move in,” said the female worker born in 1987.
Currently, her total income is about 11-12 million VND/month to take care of the life of 3 mother and children. Her husband is in the countryside, saving his income to take care of the family's important events. Each month, the children's tuition alone costs about 3 million VND. "Therefore, if there is social housing for rent, the rental price must be reasonable; if the rental price is too high, workers like us will definitely not be able to afford it. If the price is reasonable, I am willing to pay more money to have a better place for my family," Ms. Hanh expressed.
Another reason Ms. Hanh wants to rent social housing is that in the long term, she will return to her hometown and has no intention of working as a migrant worker for the rest of her life. “With a worker’s income, buying a house in Hanoi, even if it is social housing, is out of reach. Instead, renting for a while and then returning to her hometown would be very reasonable,” the mother of two shared.
Like Ms. Hanh, Ms. Cao Thu Trang (from Nam Dinh) also expressed her desire to get social housing, but at an acceptable price. “The rental price of social housing must be from 2.5 million VND/month or less for me to be able to afford it. If it is higher than that, I will not be able to rent it because it is beyond my financial capacity,” Ms. Trang said.
Working as a factory worker, Ms. Trang's total income is 8 million VND/month. She also has to do business to earn more money to raise 3 children to study. Her family rents a house in Mai Chau village, Dai Mach commune, Dong Anh district, Hanoi. This house is quite humid, not good for health. According to Ms. Trang, if she gets social housing, her children will have their own room, and the hygiene and security conditions will be better than they are now.
Proposal to increase social housing rental segment
Building social housing for rent is a proposal of many National Assembly deputies at the 8th Session of the 15th National Assembly. Deputy Hoang Van Cuong (Hanoi City Delegation) analyzed that the people who need to buy social housing are those who do not have much money, their income is only enough to cover their living expenses, they do not have savings to pay for a house, and they do not even have enough savings to pay the bank loan interest if they get a loan to buy a house.
“So how can people afford to buy a house? In fact, for many years, low-income people who were allowed to buy a house, after 5 years of being allowed to sell, a large number of them sold their house to use the money to pay off debts and do other things,” said the delegate.
To provide low-income people with housing, Mr. Hoang Van Cuong suggested that it is necessary to increase the rental housing segment for low-income people. According to him, they can rent this housing for life, when they have accumulated enough money, they will use the money to buy commercial housing and reserve that housing fund for people with other incomes to rent.
Sharing the same view, delegate Nguyen Thi Viet Nga (Hai Duong delegation) said that the selling price of social housing is still quite high compared to the income of the people. Therefore, in the coming time, the delegate suggested that localities pay special attention to developing the type of social housing for rent so that people can access it more easily.
