A social housing project in Đồng Văn Industrial Park, Hà Nam Province. — VNA/VNS Photo Tuấn Anh

The Ministry of Construction has agreed with the State Bank of Việt Nam’s proposal to offer preferential lending rates for homebuyers who borrow from the VNĐ120 trillion (US$4.72 billion) social housing credit package, at 3-5 percentage points lower than the average.

This aim is to create conditions for homebuyers to access the preferential loans in the context that the disbursement of the VNĐ120 trillion package remained stagnant, the construction ministry said at the Government’s monthly meeting on Monday.

To date, only a modest sum of VNĐ49 billion from the package has been disbursed to home buyers.

The State Bank of Việt Nam is drawing comments from ministries and agencies on the proposals of amendments to the VNĐ120 trillion credit package for social housing development.

Accordingly, the lending rate for homebuyers has been suggested at 3-5 percentage points lower than the average of the Big4 (BIDV, Vietinbank, Vietcombank and Agribank), while the rate for developers could be kept the same at 1.5-2 percentage points lower.

To date, 34 out of 63 provinces and cities announced 78 projects which are eligible for borrowing from the package.

Banks have disbursed a total of over VNĐ1.34 trillion from the funding package, including nearly VNĐ1.3 trillion for developers of 12 projects and VNĐ49 billion for buyers at five projects. — VNS