However, for this model to truly come into life, the problem is not only in policy issuance, but in the ability to balance benefits between three important market actors: the State, businesses and people.
The housing market only operates sustainably when the three parties find a point of intersection of interests. The State plays a role in creating institutions and regulating the market. Businesses are the force directly investing and developing projects. People are the ultimate beneficiaries of policies.
If one of these three factors is out of sync, the policy is unlikely to succeed.
For the State, the most important thing is to build a transparent and stable mechanism. Real estate is a long-term investment sector, the project life cycle often lasts many years. Therefore, if policies are inconsistent, procedures are complicated, or change continuously, businesses will find it difficult to boldly invest in segments with low profit margins such as affordable commercial housing.
Meanwhile, businesses with the mission of providing products for society still have to operate according to market rules with the highest goal of profit. A project can only be implemented when it ensures reasonable profits, enough to compensate for land, construction, financial and market risk costs. If profits are too tightened, investment capital will automatically flow to other more attractive segments.
In the opposite direction, people, especially urban workers, need a price that is truly suitable for their income.
However, the implementation of this policy is not simple at all. First of all, it is necessary to clearly define what the criterion is "appropriate price". If the selling price is only slightly lower than the price of ordinary traders, the policy will be difficult to reach the right target audience. Conversely, if the price is set too low, businesses will not have enough motivation to invest.
The next problem lies in land, a factor that accounts for a large proportion of housing costs. Without a clean land mechanism, land use fee incentives or reasonable land fund planning, it is very difficult to create housing products with prices lower than the market.
Another issue that also needs to be controlled is speculation. Without a strict monitoring mechanism, affordable commercial housing risks repeating the spiral of buyers to invest and transfer for profit instead of finding real housing.
The implementation capacity of the locality also plays a key role. From land fund planning, investor selection, project approval to selling price control, all depend on the management apparatus at the local level. If the implementation stage is not decisive or not transparent, policies, even if correct, will hardly be effective.
However, the pilot development of affordable commercial housing is still a positive sign showing the State's efforts in adjusting the real estate market structure.
If designed correctly and implemented synchronously, affordable commercial housing is not just a housing policy. It is also a solution to the "bottleneck" of housing for millions of workers, and contributes to creating a foundation for the sustainable development of Vietnamese cities in the coming years.
