Home buyers can mortgage their new houses or apartments for loans from the Government's stimulus package of VND30 trillion. — Photo dddn.com.vn

HA NOI (Biz Hub)— Home buyers will soon be allowed to mortgage their new houses or apartments for loans from the VND30 trillion housing stimulus package.

The Ministry of Construction (MoC), the State Bank of Viet Nam (SBV) and the Ministry of Justice will issue a joint circular in that regard.

Deputy Minister for Construction Nguyen Tran Nam announced the news at a conference earlier this week in Ha Noi to discuss solutions for resolving the problems in the property market held by the Bank for Development and Investment of Viet Nam (BIDV).

Nam said the circular would be issued right after the Tet (Lunar New Year) holiday, adding that State workers would be eligible for accessing the loans if they have certified letters from their office without income statements.

Those working in non-State companies would have to apply for certification from their wards without income statements.

"This is considered as a breakthrough to accelerate disbursement of the package which was modestly disbursed last year," he said.

MoC and SBV would also include more commercial banks as participants in the VND30 trillion package.

The deputy minister said the ministry would focus on solutions for creating long-term capital for housing development such as credit trust fund and real estate investment fund. Especially, the Government would promote the establishment of housing banks to support housing projects.

"We would implement the pilot establishment of the bank after the holiday," he said.

A BIDV representative said that excluding bad debts, the bank would extend loans to home buyers who find it hard to repay their debts.

In addition, BIDV also proposed the Government allow commercial housing projects with apartments of less than 70 square metres and costing less than VND15 million per square metre to access the loan.

He also asked MoC to grant the Certificate of Housing Ownership Right to buyers of social housing projects and allow transfer of the certificate.

Responding to the proposal, Nam said the ministry has allowed some commercial housing projects access the loan package. However, it has not allowed home buyers from social housing projects to transfer their certificate within five years as it could be advantageous to property speculators.

BIDV also proposed to increase the loan period of the package from the current 10 to 15 to 20 years. It also submitted that the loan interest rate be lowered by 1 to 2 per cent.

Responding to the proposal, Tran Xuan Chau, SBV's deputy head of the Credit Department, said the central bank has reviewed the proposal to allow some commercial banks to join in the package's disbursement.

SBV would also increase the housing loans periods, but would not reduce the interest rate as it was already lower than normal loans. The proposed solutions are expected to heat up the property market this year. — VNS