About 25% of workers have a need for social housing
Hai Phong currently has more than 640,000 workers, about 50% of whom are working in industrial parks and economic zones in the area. Along with the strong increase of industrial parks, the need for social security, especially the need for stable housing for workers, is becoming increasingly urgent.
According to the City Labor Federation, in fact, most workers and laborers are living in spontaneous boarding houses, conditions are still limited such as cramped space, fluctuating and unstable rents. Boarding houses lack essential amenities, affecting family life and children's studies. The distance from the boarding house to the workplace is still far, costly and time-consuming.
Although the city has paid attention to planning and implementing a number of social housing projects, the supply is still modest, not fully meeting the current very large demand of workers. According to surveys, about 20-25% of workers working in Hai Phong have real needs to buy or rent social housing. These are people who want to stick with the city for a long time, stabilize their accommodation to stabilize their lives, and settle down to feel secure in their work. This figure shows that the housing needs of workers are no longer a latent need, but have become an urgent need.
Mr. Pham Tien Hoa - Cheng V Co., Ltd. (Do Son Industrial Park) - said that the company currently has hundreds of migrant workers, and the demand for social housing is very large. However, the selling price of social housing in Hai Phong is high, making it difficult for workers to access. Not to mention, social housing projects are not evenly distributed, with many projects concentrated in some places and few in others. Especially near the Do Son industrial park, there is currently no social housing area.
Mr. Hoa proposed that the city pay attention to implementing social housing projects for rent; implement projects near industrial parks with many workers in the area to facilitate workers and meet the housing needs of migrant workers.
Developing 7,135 social housing units in 2026
Information from the Department of Construction, from 2021 to now, Hai Phong has deployed investment in the construction of 25 social housing projects for workers and low-income people, with a scale of about 31,594 apartments. 9 projects have been opened for sale, with approved selling prices ranging from 12-22 million VND/m2. The city also has its own mechanisms and incentives for workers when buying social housing. In which, workers and laborers who have houses in the city but are far from their workplace are still eligible to buy social housing (from social housing to workplace is shorter than the distance from existing housing to workplace)... However, the appraisal, purchase, sale, and lease at some projects are still inadequate such as complicated dossier procedures, illegal brokerage arising, information disclosure not timely, and post-inspection work is still limited, posing a risk of policy fraud.
Recently, the Chairman of the City People's Committee also issued Directive No. 07/CT-UBND on strengthening the management and implementation of social housing policies in the city. Accordingly, the Chairman of the City People's Committee assigned the Department of Construction to be the standing agency, presiding over monitoring, urging, and summarizing the situation of social housing deployment in the area. The Department deploys and guides the internal process for reviewing applications for social housing purchase registration, strengthens coordination with relevant departments, branches, and localities to minimize people's travel time. Along with that, organize inspection and verification of the right subjects, eligible to enjoy policies; limit the situation of one subject submitting applications at multiple projects; notify the list of eligible subjects to investors on time as prescribed; strengthen post-inspection in the process of social housing purchase and sale.
The Department of Agriculture and Environment is responsible for confirming housing conditions for people within a period of no more than 7 days from the date of receiving complete dossiers according to regulations. The City Police directs and directs functional forces to strengthen grasping the situation, promptly investigate and strictly handle cases of illegal brokerage, fraud and appropriation of property, manipulation of dossiers for social housing purchases according to legal regulations. The City Inspectorate strengthens periodic and unscheduled inspections of compliance with legal regulations in the implementation of projects and social housing purchase and sale activities.
From now until the end of 2026, the city will continue to focus on implementing resolutions on social housing development, closely following the 3-good viewpoint: good location - good quality - good price. At the same time, urge investors to accelerate the progress of social housing projects, striving to complete the social housing development target in 2026 of 7,135 units (the Prime Minister assigned 6,700 units in Resolution No. 07/NQ-CP dated January 12, 2026).
