Hanoi (VNA) - The State will employ policies to encourage thedevelopment of cheap commercial houses to remove difficulties for the realestate market and enterprises due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Ministry of Construction made the announcement at a seminar on solutions onrestoring the domestic real estate market in the post-COVID-19 period. Thisevent was held by the Vietnam Real Estate Association and Xay Dung (Construction)newspaper in Hanoi on June 12.

The Government recently issued a resolution on providing more capital forsocial housing development and assigned the Ministry of Construction to workwith localities to review social housing projects and housing projects forworkers at industrial zones nationwide.

The ministry has also proposed the Government amend Decree 100 on socialhousing development and management to cut administrative procedures to helpbusinesses invest in this segment, according to Deputy Minister of ConstructionNguyen Van Sinh who attended the seminar.

In addition, to develop housing projects for low-income people, the ministryhas also built a draft of a resolution on developing low-price commercialhouses. At present, the supply of middle and high-end houses is higher thanthat of low-price houses, prompting the need for the Government to intervene.

For instance, the State will increase incentives for businesses investing incommercial apartments with an area of under 75 sq.m per each and an offeredprice of less than 20 million VND (over 858 USD) per sq.m.

This draft of the resolution is expected to be submitted to the Government inthe third quarter of this year, according to the Construction Ministry.

In the long-term, the ministry must review overlapping regulations relating toreal estate investment and business activities and amend them to create goodconditions and clear administrative procedures for investors.

As part of that, the ministry is amending the Housing Law and the Real EstateBusiness Law as well as decrees and circulars to ensure the consistency andreform of administrative procedures.

"In addition, the ministry needs to improve institutions relating to realestate and have a strategic plan for property market management," saidexpert Can Van Luc.

Expert Le Xuan Nghia said the quick or slow recovery of the real estate marketwill depend on the recovery of the economy and policies of the Government.

Basic segments such as industrial real estate, affordable housing, land plots,luxury apartments and shophouses might recover soon, while office and resortreal estate might recover more slowly.

The Government's current stimulus packages have had a positive impact on thereal estate market. Besides that, there are policies on infrastructuredevelopment, key economic zones, industrial parks and reform of administrativeprocedures and adjustment of laws.

However, the property market still needs solutions in regulations andadministrative procedures on auctions for public land and leased land, siteclearance and change of land use purpose. Those solutions will simplifyprocedures and keep the stability of those regulations for several years, Nghiasaid.

In the first quarter, large investors with financial ability continued with theirprojects, of which 56 projects with more than 20,000 apartments were underconstruction and 55 projects with 18,000 units were completed.

Suspended businesses in the property sector increased 94.1 percent year-on-yearwhile 80 percent of property trading floors nationwide were suspended.

Meanwhile, the property sector attracted only 264 million USD of foreign directinvestment (FDI), accounting for 3.08 percent of total national FDI in thefirst quarter of this year./.