The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) has just issued Official Letter No. 55/NHNN-TD to 9 commercial banks (CBs) to urgently implement the Government's directives to promote lending for social housing, worker housing, and renovation and reconstruction of old apartments. SBV will not count this into the credit growth target of those banks.
Of which, 9 commercial banks including Agribank, Vietcombank, VietinBank, BIDV, TPBank, Techcombank, VPBank, MB, HDBank, have registered to lend a total of 145,000 billion VND for this project.
According to Resolution 33/NQ-CP of the Government, the State Bank will not include this loan amount in the annual credit growth target of banks. The maximum implementation period of the policy is until 2030 and the loan turnover must not exceed the amount registered by the commercial bank. Any bank that does not need to lend under this policy must send a written request to the State Bank before January 15, 2025.
On a monthly basis, commercial banks will continue to report on the lending situation for customers under the Social Housing Loan Program. At the same time, the State Bank requires banks to strictly implement their commitments on preferential interest rates and loan terms. Banks need to coordinate with eligible construction projects to promptly disburse when investors need to borrow capital, creating favorable conditions for social housing buyers to access loans.
Although it has been implemented since April 2023, the disbursement rate of the preferential loan package for developing social housing and workers' housing is slow. By April last year, banks had only disbursed VND415 billion, less than 1%.
Social housing is a policy to ensure social security and is an issue of concern to many people. Recently, the Government has also urged ministries, branches and localities to focus on removing obstacles and promoting the development of social housing. Recently, the Government has paid great attention to the issue of housing for workers and laborers with many policies and solutions to remove difficulties, requesting ministries, branches and localities to focus on removing obstacles and promoting the development of social housing. This is a major policy of the Party and State in ensuring social security.
The Government leader noted that social housing is preferential in terms of loans, land, etc., so the price is more suitable for low-income people and workers. Fast procedures and fast construction also help reduce costs and prices. However, infrastructure for transportation, electricity, water, social infrastructure, health care, education, sanitation, environment, etc. must be fully guaranteed and convenient for people as with commercial housing projects.
