Barriers to social housing prices
Information from the Department of Construction of Hai Phong City currently has 23 social housing projects, of which 6 projects have been completed and 17 projects are under implementation. In the coming time, the city will implement 25 more projects with more than 54,000 social housing units. Current selling prices range from 12 - 19 million VND/m2; in core urban areas, prices tend to increase to 20 - 25 million VND/m2.
A typical example is the social housing area at 384 Le Thanh Tong, which opened for sale at 18.857 million VND/m2, with a rental price of 74,000 VND/m2/month. The social housing area of Lac Vien warehouse 3 has a selling price of VND 17.229 million/m2, the rental price is VND 59,000/m2/month. Social housing in the Trang Due urban, commercial and workers' housing construction investment project is open for sale at VND 16.090 million/m2, rental price 84.400 VND/m2/month. The project to build apartments for low-income people in An Dong residential area has a listed selling price of VND 18.830 million/m2, the rental price ranges from VND 80,000-105,000/m2/month. Social housing in the Commercial Housing Project in Hong An Ward has 346 apartments, with an average price of 18.6 million VND/m2...
To ensure healthy and sustainable social housing development, avoid policy exploitation, people have access and buy at the right price of social housing, and not have to pay any other costs, the Department of Construction requests the Hai Phong Economic Zone Management Board and the City Labor Federation to inform businesses and employees in industrial parks about social housing projects, legal regulations on subjects, conditions and procedures for buying, leasing, and leasing social housing; guide businesses to confirm employees when they have a need to buy social housing.
However, according to the Trang Due Industrial Park Trade Union Club, the demand for social housing among workers is very large but access is still limited. In the Japanese Industrial Park - Hai Phong, many workers reported that the current social housing prices are still too high compared to their affordability and proposed that the city have more social housing projects at prices more suitable for workers' income.
Connecting social housing needs
With the situation of workers still having difficulty accessing social housing projects, despite the huge demand, the City Labor Federation will organize the first Social Housing - Employment Consulting Festival.
The program took place from December 5 to 7 at the Vietnam-C around-Tiep Friendship Labor Cultural Palace. It is expected that there will be more than 10 social housing consulting booths for employees to provide information, policy advice, and support employees in accessing social housing.
Along with that, within the framework of the program, a workshop on "Answering social housing policies" was also held with the participation of about 200 delegates, representatives of State management agencies, socio-political organizations, experts in social housing policy making, representatives of social housing project contractors and workers in industrial parks in the area.
Deputy Head of Hai Phong Economic Zone Management Board Nguyen Thi Thuy Hang said: The program will partly solve the recruitment needs of businesses as well as access to social housing at suitable prices and convenient procedures. The Hai Phong Economic Zone Management Board will call on businesses to participate and provide full information about social housing policies so that employees can seize the opportunity to rent and buy a legal house that suits their conditions".
In addition to the social housing needs connection program, the Department of Construction is proposing to expand the scope of social housing buyers, increasing the maximum income of single people allowed to buy social housing to 24 million VND/month.
