Apartment blocs in HCM City (Photo: VNA) HCM City (VNA) - HCM City's Construction Department has announced that it is cooperating with the HCM City Institute for Department and Research (HIDS) to survey the demand for social housing with the aim of creating a plan to develop social housing in the city in the next five years.
The survey is in response to Decision No.6254 released in December 2014 by the city's People's Committee.
In a conference on December 29 in HCM City to guide surveying methods, Phan Truong Son, head of the department's Housing Development and Real Estate Bureau, said that the demand for social housing was increasing but there are not many houses available.
Many investors have poured money for these projects into the city, he added.
Because of that, Son said, the survey is conducted with the main aim of helping the city's People's Committee make a clear and exact plan to develop social housing in the next five years.
According to Son, HCM City has used the city budget to develop six social housing projects, supplying 568 apartments to state workers. These apartments are for lease only.
In addition, 22 other projects have been invested in by companies with a total of nearly 29,000 apartments. Of them, three have been complete, supplying nearly 700 apartments. Others are under construction or awaiting land-clearance.
Some commercial projects have also been converted to social housing projects.
The institution and department emphasised at the conference that the price of houses not built with state capital was not decided by the State. In private projects, the interest can not exceed 15 percent and the price is surely cheaper than that of commercial projects.
In the conference, participants also explained who has the right to buy houses. Under the law, there will be 10 groups able to buy social apartments including officials working in state-owned companies, soldiers, students, those with low-incomes and people contributing to the country's revolution.-VNA
