Workers on the construction site of a bridge over the Red River in the border area between Lào Cai and China's Yunnan Province. — VNA/VNS Photo Quốc Khánh

HÀ NỘI — The Ministry of Construction said at a July 7 conference that it is stepping up efforts to expand social and rental housing in the second half of this year to improve housing affordability and support a more stable property market.

According to the ministry, 96 social housing projects have been completed across the country so far this year to supply 27,636 apartments to the market. Fourteen provinces and cities are expected to meet or exceed their assigned social housing targets.

Nationwide, 866 social housing projects have been developed with a combined investment of about VNĐ606 trillion (US$23 billion) and a total of 757,338 apartment units.

Of these, 289 projects with a total of 197,279 units have been completed, 261 projects with 254,816 units are under construction and 316 projects with 305,243 units have received investment approval.

Under a Government resolution issued in January, Việt Nam aims to complete about 158,700 social housing units this year.

Chief of the ministry's office Lâm Văn Hoàng said Việt Nam's property market showed positive signs in the first half of the year, with apartment prices largely stable compared with the previous quarter, although they remained at relatively high levels.

He said the construction ministry has completed preparations for a national real estate information system and electronic property identification database, which are expected to improve market transparency.

In the second half of the year, the ministry will continue revising the Law on Housing and the Law on Real Estate Business while finalising national technical standards on apartment building safety, including requirements for residential buildings equipped with electric vehicle charging stations.

The ministry is also preparing detailed regulations on the development and management of social housing and drafting a resolution aimed at removing legal obstacles affecting social housing projects, while developing the national technical standard for rental housing.

Reports from local authorities show that Việt Nam currently has 130,571 rental housing units under construction. A review of national rental housing demand will be completed before the construction ministry assigns specific targets to provincial governments.

Speeding up disbursement

The ministry also said that transport infrastructure development saw significant improvement the first half of the year, with 395km of expressways completed, enabling uninterrupted travel along the eastern North-South Expressway from Lạng Sơn to Cà Mau.

As the national road network has expanded with 219km of new highways and 212km of upgraded roads, the national highway system now totals 24,595km in length, in addition to 1,701km of coastal roads.

The ministry has also completed around 1,600 technical standards, 135 technical regulations and more than 16,000 construction cost norms to support major infrastructure projects.

Another 14,600 cost norms for railway projects are expected to be completed by July 20, to provide a basis for Hà Nội and HCM City to implement planned urban rail developments.

Despite this progress, Minister of Construction Trần Hồng Minh said mobilising private investment for infrastructure remains challenging due to the lack of long-term financing mechanisms.

He also pointed to slow progress on some major projects, weak public investment disbursement in the first six months of the year, limited multimodal transport connectivity and uneven planning implementation across localities.

Minh urged efforts to help resolve bottlenecks facing infrastructure projects, particularly land clearance and construction material supplies, to accelerate construction and improve public investment disbursement. — VNS