Vietnam needs cheaper social housing

The labour confederation's statistics revealed at a recent conference that only 20% of workers had stable accommodation. A large number of workers now live in rented accommodation in the slums which has an effect on their health.

Vu Hong Quang from the Vietnam General Confederation of Labour said that during the development of industrial zones, adequate attention had not been paid to developing houses, schools and recreational parks for low-income earners.

Although the government has already raised policies for housing development for low-income earners, many prove to be inappropriate in reality and need to be amended. In addition, complicated procedures also resulted in stagnant implementation.

Social housing buildings at Gia Lam District's Dang Xa Commune (Photo: VNA)

Nguyen Van Duc, deputy director of Dat Lanh Real Estate Company, said that developing housing projects for the poor is not appealing enough for investors due to the complicated procedures and unattractive profits.

Tran Ngoc Hung, Chairman of the Vietnam Federation of Civil Engineering Association, said the housing demand for low-income earners is estimated at 1 million units by 2020 while currently only 10,000 units are supplied each year.

Hung said that due to the limited supply of apartments for low-income earners, the prices remained high, ranging between VND500 million (US$22,330) and VND1 billion (US$44,660) per unit. With an average income of VND5 million (US$225) per month, it will be difficult for a worker to afford a house.

Hung said that there should be greater incentives in funding and land to encourage investors to develop low-priced housing projects for rent and for hire-purchase.

The government should manage planning of social housing projects and let pricing be decided by the market, he said.

Investors of commercial housing projects should spare land to develop low-priced, smaller apartments, experts at the conference said.