There is a serious shortage of affordable homes in the market. The Government has issued a decree with an expectation to promote social housing development to meet the market demand. — Photo thanhnien.vn

HÀ NỘI — The Government has issued a new decree aiming to promote the development of social housing.

The decree will amend Decree No 100/2015/NĐ-CP dated October 20, 2015, which was expected to remove bottlenecks for the development of social housing projects amid a serious shortage of affordable homes in the market.

Taking effect from the beginning of April, the new decree includes new regulations for the percentage of land in commercial housing projects, urban areas and industrial zones that must be used for social housing, as well as preferential interest rates for social housing developers and buyers.

Statistics of the Ministry of Construction show there are a total of 1,040 social housing projects nationwide, including 507 built independently on a total area of 1,375ha and 533 projects built on the 20 per cent of the land of commercial housing projects and urban areas designated for social housing development with a total area of 1,983ha.

Of them, 248 projects are complete with 103,500 apartment units or 5.1 million sq.m, 264 projects with 216,500 units are being constructed and the rest have not started construction or are conducting investment procedures.

The ministry said the 5.1 million sq.m of completed social housing area only met 41.1 per cent of the goal set in the national housing development strategy to 2020 with a vision to 2030. In this strategy, the Government aimed to develop 12.5 million sq.m of social housing space by the end of 2020.

The new decree is expected to promote the development of social housing projects to meet market demand.

Per the decree, commercial housing and urban area projects with a total area of 2ha or higher in urban areas classified as special or type one or from 5ha in urban areas of type two and three must designate 20 per cent of their total land with adequate technical infrastructure for social housing development.

The planning of industrial zones must designate appropriate land for social housing development with adequate technical and social infrastructure.

Social housing apartments must be sized from 25 sq.m to 70 sq.m. The number of apartments with areas of higher than 70 sq.m must be less than 10 per cent of the total units in social housing projects.

In addition, the interest rate for social housing buyers can't exceed 50 per cent of the average lending rate in the same period.

In addition, the maximum lending duration was extended to 25 years from 15 years in the previous decree.

On April 1, Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc also issued a decision about the preferential interest rate provided by the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies on outstanding social housing loans at 4.5 per cent, taking effect on January 1, 2023. — VNS