Nearly 3,000 apartments for low-income earners in the capital are expected to go on sale on March 5 with an aim to reduce the pressure on housing accommodations.

Accordingly, low-income earners will be able to apply for a flat under five projects. Sai Dong new residential housing block in Long Bien district will provide about 868 apartments, Dang Xa in Gia Lam district 1,000, Dai Mo in Tu Liem district, 124, and the Kien Hung area in Ha Dong district another 860.

The deadline for the application will be the end of March.

Apartments will have an average area of 50 to 70 square metres and are expected to be available by the fourth quarter of the year.

Vu Ngoc Dam, head of the municipal Construction Department's Housing Development Office, said the sale would be offered to low-income earners who have household registration books.

The first low-income housing project on Ngo Thi Nham street , Ha Dong district launched by Vinaconex Xuan Mai Concrete and Construction Joint Stock Company required household registration books due to the high volume of applications.

Dam said information on the projects and applications would be published on the department's website.

Dang Hoang Huy, general director of Vinaconex Xuan Mai, said the number of apartments for low-income earners would reduce pressure on the Kien Hung project.

"The number of valid applications for apartments in the first low-income housing project on Ngo Thi Nham Street exceeded the 1,000 available apartments. The remaining applications will be moved to the Kien Hung project," Huy said.

He added that the number of applications this time would be 10 times higher than the number of provided apartments.

The municipal Construction Department said investors have paid much attention to the projects. The Vietnam Housing and Urban Development Group has submitted to the municipal People's Committee a request to use 20 percent of the land fund for the Thanh Lam – Dai Thinh residential area in Me Linh district to build low-income houses.

Another project in North An Khanh in Hoai Duc district is expected to provide around 5,000 apartments.

John Gallander, general director of Knight Frank Real Estate Company, said the market has seen a change from high-end to medium- and low-end apartments since last quarter.

He said it is expected that the market segment will account for 80 percent of the total 17,000 apartments in the upcoming time.

Statistics from the Ministry of Construction showed that 37 low-income housing projects were launched with a total investment of 3.6 trillion VND (171 million USD). The projects are expected to accommodate 64,000 people.

There are 190 additional projects registered with a total investment of 28 trillion VND (1.3 billion USD). About 70,000 low-income households will be provided accommodations this year. /.