At the government press conference on August 5, Deputy Minister of Construction Bui Xuan Dung answered questions about the solutions to fulfill the plan on social housing development in 2024 and the adjustment of the interest rate under the framework of the VND120 trillion credit package.

The government has requested localities to build 130,000 social housing apartments this year. Since 2021, 619 social housing projects have been launched with 561,816 apartments.

Of these, 79 projects with 40,679 apartments have been completed. As many as 128 projects with 111,688 apartments have been licensed or started construction. As many as 412 projects with 409,449 apartments have been approved for investment, but still have not kicked off.

In the first six months 2024 alone, eight projects with 3,136 apartments were completed, and five projects with 8,468 apartments received licenses and kicked off. Another nine projects with 8,795 products received approval for development.

Dung said to implement the social housing task in 2024, a series of measures need to be taken at the same time.

MOC and other agencies will guide localities, businesses and people to follow the 2023 Housing Law, Law on Real Estate Business and 2024 Land Law, as well as other legal documents that guide the implementation of the laws.  

Dung said it was necessary to urge project developers to start construction as soon as possible in order to put them into use. The projects which have been approved for investment need to choose investors and start soon.

Regarding the VND120 trillion credit package, Dung said this is capital committed by four state-owned banks (BIDV, VietinBank, Agribank and Vietcombank). In addition, TPBank, VPBank, MBBank and Techcombank have registered to join the program, promising to provide VND5 trillion worth of capital per bank. The total pledged is VND140 trillion worth of loans.

To date, 34 out of 63 local people’s committees have released documents and a list of 78 projects that can satisfy the requirements to access preferential loans.

Commercial banks have disbursed VND1.344 trillion, including VND1.295 trillion for project investors (12 projects) and VND49 billion for apartment buyers of five projects.

The government launched the VND120 trillion credit package with lending interest rates 1.5-2 percent per annum lower than the banks’ medium- and long-term interest rates.

Anh Phuong