Den Lu apartment building, a low-cost housing project in Ha Noi's Hoang Mai District. Viet Nam's Government has been making efforts to add 60 million square metres of housing each year until 2020. — VNA/VNS Photo Hoang Lam

HCM CITY (Biz Hub)— The Ministry of Construction has proposed several measures to ensure 75 per cent of houses in the country are built of brick and mortar by 2020, Thoi Bao Kinh Te Viet Nam (Viet Nam Economic Times) newspaper reported.

In Viet Nam, 20 per cent of urban families are in need of housing while around 7 million low-income earners want to buy or lease public housing.

Besides, 1 million workers in industrial parks and 1.2 million students want to rent proper homes.

This means that the country needs to add 60 million square metres of housing each year to ensure living space of 25 square metres per capita by 2020.

To achieve these objectives, the ministry has proposed a number of measures related to every aspect of the housing industry.

One of them is to create a legal framework to ensure transparency and sustainable development of the housing market.

This would require tweaking the Land Law, Construction Law, Housing Law, and Real Estate Business Law.

The Land Law and relevant decrees and decisions would be amended to simplify leasing and allotment of land for housing projects.

The Housing Law would encourage the construction of apartments, social housing, houses for lease, and make it mandatory to invite competitive bids for all housing projects.

Besides, there would be public debates on housing projects.

Foreign organisations and individuals are likely to be allowed to invest in these projects and also to buy and own housing.

All housing-related transactions would have to go through banking channels to plug tax loopholes.

The ministry has proposed that housing construction licences for domestic organisations and individuals should be scrapped, while the licensing procedures for foreign developers should be simplified.

It wants to improve financial and credit support for housing development.

It plans to create a robust financial and legal framework to enable the establishment of a secondary mortgage market, and set up a housing development fund for people to upgrade their homes, and for social-housing developers.

The ministry will also address technical aspects with clear regulations and standards for construction design and incentives for developers who use modern technologies and build environmentally friendly houses.

It plans to help low-income people and beneficiaries of Government policies acquire homes by getting banks to lend to them and supporting businesses and social organisations that build charity houses.

The ministry plans to use public and other funds to build housing for workers and dormitories and upgrade old students' dormitories.

It will encourage companies to invest in students' dormitories and houses for workers in industrial parks.

The proposals have been submitted to the Government for approval. — VNS