|
Affordable housing eludes poor
More houses for low-income people, including labourers and State employees, are needed to meet the rising demand for affordable housing, according to Ho Chi Minh City officials.
In Ho Chi Minh City, 200,000 workers at industrial and export processing zones, 11,000 State employees, and over 1.5 million migrants do not have housing yet.
The few low-income housing projects that do exist are usually only half-completed or still on the drawing board. Most real estate investors are focused on the quick profits of building high-end housing.
Meanwhile, despite a drop in housing prices, low-income earners do not have enough cash to buy houses since bank policies no longer allow them to take out loans.
The price of a 40 sq,m apartment from Dat Lanh Real Estate Company is 400 million VND (24,000 USD). At this price, it would take 20 years of work for many people to be able to afford the house.
HCM City ’s Housing Development Fund has a programme to provide home loans for low-income earners but the criteria for eligibility is often unattainable.
The fund can only give loans to a limited number of people. Moreover, the maximum amount that they can borrow is 300 million VND (18,000 USD).
Nguyen Ngoc Thach, deputy director of the Housing Development Fund, proposed the city create more favourable conditions for public land funds and capital for building low-income housing immediately to speed up housing development projects.
He also asked the city to let private investors take over Government housing development projects, and then rent or sell them.
So far the fund has given 247 people loans worth a total of 58 billion VND(3.5 million USD).
VNA
|
