More than 6,000 apartments will be affected by the municipal People's Committee's proposals to change three property projects from commercial housing to social housing. -- Photo vietstock.com

HCM CITY (Biz Hub) — The municipal People's Committee approved proposals to change three property projects from commercial housing to social housing.

More than 6,000 apartments will be affected by the change.

Tran Trong Tuan, director of the city's Construction Department said the change from commercial housing to social housing projects was slow as most projects divided big apartments into smaller ones without ensuring technical safety and social infrastructure, so the city had to take time to review all proposals thoroughly.

The city proposed the Government provide loans from its VND30 trillion (US$1.4 billion) package for apartments with areas of more than 70sq.m and prices of less than VND15 million per sq.m. It also asked for value-added (VAT) and corporate income tax exemptions for social housing investors and VAT reductions for first-time homebuyers. — VNS