Apartment supply in Hà Nội is forecast to increase in the coming years to meet market demand, especially social housing products and products for low-income people.

Director of Hà Nội Department of Construction Võ Nguyên Phong said that Hà Nội is implementing a housing development programme for 2021 - 2030, aiming at a diversity of housing products, focusing on social housing products, rental apartments and housing for workers in industrial parks. This programme will address the housing needs of the population with different income levels, especially beneficiaries of social housing support policies.

According to the programme, Hà Nội strives for the average housing area per capita to reach 29.5 sq.m (31 sq.m for urban spaces and 28 sq.m for rural areas) in the period of 2021 - 2025. The minimum housing area is estimated to reach ten sq.m for each person.

By 2030, Hà Nội sets the target for the average housing area per capita to rise to 32 sq.m. For social housing projects, the rate of housing for rent reaches at least 10 per cent of the projects.

To reach the goals of the housing development plan for the period 2021-2025, the Ha Noi People's Committee has approved 15 housing and urban area construction investment projects in the second phase of carrying out this plan.

Accordingly, the market is expected to have 5,662 more apartments and low-rise housing products from now until 2025, including 2,051 social housing units in new urban areas in Hoàng Mai District and Tân Triều commune, Thanh Trì District. 

In August 2023, the authorities approved 162 investment projects to build housing and urban areas in the first phase of implementing the city's housing development plan for 2021 - 2025. 

They included 146 commercial housing and urban area projects with 91,322 apartments and low-rise housing products, eight social housing projects with 5,572 apartments, and eight projects building resettlement housing with 5,177 apartments.

To solve the difficulties in social housing development, the vice chairman of Hà Nội People's Committee, Dương Đức Tuấn, said that Hà Nội has proposed five solutions to promote housing development to meet the total demand for social housing by 2030 at about 6.8 million sq.m, equivalent to 113,000 apartments, including modern social housing projects with synchronisation in technical and social infrastructure.

Hà Nội will deploy the construction of five social housing areas with an area of 280 hectares to supply about 2.3 million sq.m of floor, equivalent to 38,000 apartments. 

The capital city continues to research locations for developing social housing projects. At the same time, it reviews 68 plots of land, accounting for 20 per cent and 25 per cent of land funds in commercial housing projects and urban areas for building social housing products. 

In addition, the Hà Nội Department of Construction has proposed to increase profits for investors building social housing to 15-20 per cent, instead of the current level of 10 per cent, which does not attract investors.

The department also suggests keeping the regulation that investors of social housing projects are allowed to reserve 20 per cent of residential land to build commercial housing. This is a crucial incentive mechanism for the investors and the condition to lower selling prices, directly supporting home buyers.

It has also proposed that it is necessary to have incentives in terms of loan period, interest rate and legal procedures for the VNĐ120 trillion loan package for social housing development. — VNS