Workers feel squeeze due to social housing shortage
Nguyen Thi Phuong, who has worked at the Thang Long Industrial Park in Hanoi’s outskirts district of Dong Anh for years, said her family of three would enjoy a stable life if not for housing.
Housing for workers at Dong An Industrial Park, Binh Duong province (Photo: VNA)
Hanoi (VNA) – Nguyen Thi Phuong, who has worked at the Thang LongIndustrial Park in Hanoi’s outskirts district of Dong Anh for years, said herfamily of three would enjoy a stable life if not for housing.
Phuong is one of many other workers at industrial and export processing zones acrossthe country, who are grappling to find housing with affordable rent and accessto public schools. Most of them had to rent rooms in residential areas and sendtheir children to private kindergartens.
The Construction Ministry reported that only 20 percent of workers nationwidehave accessed housing projects, meeting only 40 percent of the target set inthe national housing development strategy by 2020 with a vision towards 2030.
Ha Quang Hung, deputy head of the Housing and Real Estate Market ManagementDepartment under the Construction Ministry, said many rental houses do not meetrequirements of environmental hygiene and essential social and technicalinfrastructure such as kindergartens, schools, medical centres andentertainment areas.
To solve the problem, the Prime Minister on January 25, 2017 issued DirectiveNo. 03/CT-TTg on promoting social housing development, particularly housing forworkers.
Statistics of 46 out of 63 centrally-run cities and provinces show that as ofearly 2018, about 1.2 million workers at industrial parks needed accommodations.The number is projected to amount to around 3 million in 2020.
Localities reported that 73 housing projects for workers are being carried out withabout 88,400 apartments. However, many of them have been suspended or have slowprogress due to a lack of capital.
According to the Housing and Real Estate Market Management Department, localitieshave yet to pay due attention to social housing development, particularlysocial housing projects and houses for workers.
Hoang Vu Linh Chi from the Institute of Sociology underlined the need for regulationsthat require newly-formed industrial parks to zone land for workers’ housesbefore calling for investors.
She also pointed out bottlenecks hindering social housing projects such ascumbersome administrative procedures, and prolonged land clearance compensationand project approval.
In this regard, Hung suggested policies designed specifically for socialhousing projects in terms of land lease fee and tax, and access to long-termhousing loans with low interest rates for workers and labourers in need ofhousing.-VNA
The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) has decided to keep preferential loan interest rate unchanged at 5 percent for purchase, rent or hire of social housing projects in 2018.
The legal corridor for social housing development has recently changed towards providing more incentives than it was first mentioned in the Housing Law in 2005.
Social housing development not only improves societal strength but also boosts the economy overall, said Minister of Construction Pham Hong Ha, emphasising that Government spending on social housing can lift the real estate industry as a whole.
Hanoi’s property market will have more supply of social housing products for low-income people by 2020 in order to address the paucity of those products on the market combined with the over-supply of commercial houses.
Vietnam has to date completed 87 social housing projects with some 28,800 apartments for workers at industrial parks (IPs), meeting just 28 percent of the demand, according to the Ministry of Construction.
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Housing for workers at Dong An Industrial Park, Binh Duong province (Photo: VNA) 
