HCMC – The VND120-trillion credit package is not intended to rescue the struggling real estate sector but to achieve the target of building at least one million social homes by 2030, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha said at a meeting held yesterday, May 24.

The package is designed to support developers and buyers of social housing. Interest rates for those loans would be 1.5 to 2 percentage points lower than the average of the four banks at the transaction time.

However, the loan disbursement rate is currently far slower than expected as there have been almost no takers since its launch two months ago.

The lower-than-expected disbursement is attributed to obstacles in land allocation and inadequate planning for social housing development. Many businesses are awaiting the implementation of the amended Housing Law for more streamlined procedures.

As the guidance documents were just issued in April, many localities have been still preparing a list of housing projects and the number of people eligible to take out the loans.

Given the situation, Deputy PM Tran Hong Ha urged relevant units to speed up the planning and land allocation for social housing projects, especially large-scale ones in major cities like Hanoi, HCMC, Haiphong, Danang, and Can Tho.

Most issues related to legal procedures are being addressed through amendments to the Housing Law and Land Law. Once these laws come into effect, all of these issues will be effectively resolved, he said.

The Ministry of Construction has been assigned to guide localities to submit monthly reports on the implementation of the credit package.

A report from the Ministry of Construction shows that around 100 social housing projects in 36 provinces and cities have been granted construction permits. These projects will develop 85,662 apartment units with a total investment of around VND70,000 billion.

In Hanoi, over 4,000 social homes are currently available in the market, and 40 projects are under development.