Hanoi is striving to raise its per capita average housing area to 23.1 square metres by the end of 2015 as stated in the capital’s housing development programme for the 2012 – 2020 period.

Accordingly, Hanoi aims to provide every people in its urban areas with 26.6 sq.m. of housing and those in rural zones with 20 sq.m.

The programme, recently approved by the Prime Minister, targets 89.7 percent of housing in the city built permanently, up from 88.6 percent in 2011.

From now to the end of 2015, Hanoi will build 540,000 sq.m of housing to accommodate 41,000 students and another 1.6 million sq.m for workers at industrial parks.

At the same time, about 20,000 apartments with a total flooring space of 1.8 million sq.m will be constructed for those who rendered services during wartime, civil servants, military personnel, low-income earners, and other beneficiaries.

By 2020, the average housing area for each people in the capital will stand at 26.3 sq.m with respective figures in urban and rural areas of 29.1 and 22.1 sq.m.

Meanwhile, the rate of permanent housing will be raised to 91.2 percent.

Under the plan, Hanoi will also suspend commercial projects that have not been licensed in its downtown.-VNA