Design of Thoi An residential building, one of the commercial projects will be transformed into social ones. – VNA Photo Hoang Hai

HCM CITY (Biz Hub) – The HCM City People's Committee has agreed to convert eight commercial housing projects into social ones, Vietnamplus reported, quoting the city's Real Estate Association.

Specifically, 3,522 large flats of the eight projects will be resized and changed into 7,613 small and medium ones.

The projects that will be modified are the Thao Dien residential area for re-located people, the Hung Dien residential and trade area, the Hoang Quan Plaza flat complex and 584 Tan Phu high-rise flat building, as well as the Thoi An residential area.

Regarding the VND30-trillion ($1.42 billion) real-estate stimulus package that targets low and middle income earners and social housing builders, banks in the city disbursed VND658 billion ($30.9 million) to two businesses, and more than VND393 billion ($18.5 million) to more than 1,400 individuals by October 31, 2014.

To push up the disbursement of the preferential loan package, the association has suggested that the interest rate should be reduced to four to 4.5 per cent in 2015, from the current five per cent. It has also recommended the inclusion of newly married couples and migrant labourers in the loan package's target groups.

The association has also proposed that the construction ministry should allow buyers of commercial houses worth less than VND1.05 billion ($49,000) to access the concessional credit. – VNS