HANOI: Vietnam expects a boom in affordable homes for low-income earners due to improving legal frameworks that are paying the way for removing bottlenecks to social housing development.

The amended Law on Real Estate Business, the Law on Land and the Law on Housing will come into force from the beginning of 2025, helping to resolve problems, maximise resources and promote the development of the property market and the affordable segment.

Social housing development is considered pressing as Vietnam is facing a serious shortage of homes for low-income earners.

Hoang Hai, director of the Housing and real estate market management department under the Construction Ministry, said the amended law on housing will create more favourable conditions for both developers and buyers while facilitating the development of this segment.

A new point is that the designation of 20% of land for social housing development will fall under the responsibility of each locality who will know more exactly about the local demand for the most appropriate social housing development planning in line with their local socio-economic development orientations.

Procedures will be made simpler to implement social housing projects.

Nguyen Van Dinh, vice-president of Vietnam Real Estate Association, said the amended law on land will enable enterprises to access land with more transparency.The ministry’s statistics showed that 108 social housing projects with a total of 47,532 units are registered to be completed within this year, signalling a room in the supply of affordable homes.

In early 2024, many new large-scale affordable housing projects were announced.

Vinhomes began work on two social housing projects branded Happy Home in Hai Phong and Khanh Hoaworth 5.8 trillion dong and 3.8 trillion dong, respectively, covering an area of more than 100ha.

When completed, the projects will supply more than 4,000 affordable apartments in Hai Phong and 3,300 units in Khanh Hoa.Vinhomes said that another social housing project of 3,100 units will be implemented in Thanh Hoa in 2024.

Other players also join in social housing development such as BIC Vietnam with a plan of developing Rice City To Huu of 711 apartments and Rice City Long Bien of 600 apartments in Hanoi and Newland with 1,260 apartment Tan Phu Hung project in Hai Duong.

Property expert Dinh Trong Thinh said the increase in the supply of affordable apartments will help free up cash flow into the real estate market and promote market development over the difficult time.

Social housing will be the highlight of the real estate market this year and following years with the improving legal framework which will help attract more enterprises to invest in social housing development.

Before the laws come into effect, it is necessary to develop synchronised and detailed regulations to ensure its enforcement in reality and motivate enterprises.

 - ANN