Binh Duong faces social housing development needs

Southern Binh Duong province has encountered the pressing needs of social housing development because there ​are nearly 1 million immigrant labourers in the southern province.

After five years of carrying out the social housing development programme, Binh Duong has seen construction of 82 social housing projects offering 85,070 units and valued at more than 19 trillion VND (848.2 million USD), which was to provide housing for more than 238,000 people.

To date, 22 social housing projects were completed in the province, supplying housing for nearly 37,000 people. Also, 34 projects with living space of more than 1 million square metres were expected to be completed by the end of this year.

However, many projects have not been completed or are only partially built. Difficult access to the Government's preferential loan package, coupled with lack of incentives and low profits, were discussed as causes for developers' hesitation to join the social development programme.

Local authorities nationwide have recently been asked to quicken the building of social housing, in a bid to comply with the national housing development strategy.

To date, the construction of 102 social housing projects were reportedly completed, while 150 others are underway, throughout the country.

Construction Minister Trinh Dinh Dung, on a recent television programme, said low-income housing projects still lagged far behind demand due to the lack of funds and incentives.

The country needs an estimated 200,000 apartments for low-income earners by 2020, adding to the 700,000 units built during 2012-15.-VNA