The ministry noted Viet Nam had around 10,000 families currently living in low-income housing projects and said businesses were required to use 20 per cent of their project's land area to build social houses.— File Photo

HA NOI (Biz Hub)— The Government's VND30 trillion (US$1.44 billion) bank loan package designed to assist low-income property seekers would not be limited to State-owned enterprises (SoEs), the Ministry of Construction has said as it moves to dispel doubts the loans would not reach the private sector.

Do Duc Duy, head of the ministry's secretariat, said out of 30 approved projects, only four were from SoEs. These included the Viet Nam Glass and Ceramics Corporation (Viglacera), Building Materials Corporation No1 (FICO) and Viet Nam Urban and Industrial Zone Development Investment Corporation (IDICO) who would be able access the loans.

Miniter of Construction Trinh Dinh Dung said the difficulties of the real estate market, property stock and developing social housing projects were closely related.

Dung said if businesses were able to access the loans, they could build new projects or complete those that were half-finished to provide social houses for low- and middle-income earners.

He added that few investors were willing to embark on projects due to the narrow profit margins.

"This is the reason why we should encourage companies to join projects, while seeking solutions to unpick their problems," he said.

The minister said the Government had also provided support initiatives including land-use tax exemption and value-added tax reduction in certain cases.

The high stock in the market was due to an oversupply of high-end projects and a lack of affordable options.

He said the package would provide mid-term loans and that businesses would not be able to borrow more than 30 per cent of the package.

"The target of the loan package was to help low-income earners buy houses. The more enterprises that take part in the projects, the more houses will be provided to people," he said.

The ministry noted Viet Nam had around 10,000 families currently living in low-income housing projects and said businesses were required to use 20 per cent of their project's land area to build social houses.

It intended to convert some commercial housing projects into social ones and would submit the approved list of loan recipients to the State Bank of Viet Nam (SBV) in the next two weeks.

In addition, the ministry and the SBV would discuss how to resolve administrative difficulties to accelerate disbursement to home buyers. — VNS