Apartment buildings in the West of Hà Nội. The capital city and HCM City lack affordable apartments to meet the high demand. — VNA/VNS Photo Tuấn Anh

HÀ NỘI — According to research by the Vietnam Real Estate Association, affordable apartments are almost extinct in Hà Nội and HCM City.

Đoàn Văn Bình, deputy chairman of the association and chairman of CEO Group, shared this information at the Spring Real Estate Forum held in Hà Nội on March 15.

The affordable price for an apartment is about VNĐ25 million (US$1,000) per sq.m. So, a 65sq.m two-bedroom apartment costs about VNĐ1.6 billion.

However, Bình said according to the association's research, the prices of affordable housing in Hà Nội and HCM City have increased by 20-30 per cent to between VNĐ2-2.4 billion for each apartment.

According to him, after two years of fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, the world has experienced many difficulties, including higher inflation, and many countries are also facing a housing crisis as Việt Nam, including Germany and China.

Therefore, the Government issued Decision No. 2161/QĐ-TTg dated December 22, 2021 to approve the National Housing Development Strategy for the 2021-30 period, vision to 2045. Accordingly, Việt Nam will focus on developing housing for middle-income and low-income families, especially housing products that are suitable for the majority of people's payment ability.

Meanwhile, at a meeting to implement monetary policy in 2024 held in Hà Nội on Thursday, the HCM City Real Estate Association (HoREA) proposed allowing houses priced at VNĐ35 million per sq.m to access a preferential loan package of VNĐ120 trillion.

Meanwhile, the concept of affordable housing has changed greatly, no longer at $1,000 per sq.m but that price may have doubled, Bình said.

Lê Viết Hải, chairman of Hòa Bình Construction Group, said that the core issue is a complication during the development of social housing projects, such as approval of design plan, buyers, project scale and selling price.

About two years ago, Hòa Bình Group cooperated with a social housing investor. The project had an investment licence, but until the beginning of this year, the procedures relating to the social housing project were just temporarily resolved, Hải said. This is one of the reasons why the number of social housing projects under construction is lower compared to the set target. They include procedures on land use tax, value-added tax, and credit.

At present, the market still has projects with a supply of 4,000-5,000 units but the people are not eligible to buy them. When the property products cannot be sold, the investors of those projects will not dare to continue investment.

In addition to devoting financial resources to the goal of one million social housing units, experts believe that it is possible to focus on non-financial solutions to develop the affordable housing segment, meeting the needs of the people.

To do that, it is necessary to define criteria for affordable housing and build a legal system for developing an affordable housing market and issue policies to encourage the development of small and medium-sized housing products.

Calculating the proportion of affordable housing in the overall housing development plan according to each year and each phase is needed, so that localities have orientations for implementation. — VNS