Association proposes housing stimulus package

The package should aim to provide preferential loans for the purchase of affordable apartments, with prices of around 1 billion VND per unit.

Apartment buildings for low-income earners in Dang Xa Urban Area, Gia Lam District, Hanoi.

Since the 30 trillion VND housing stimulus package ended in 2016, no similar packages were released, while demand remained high, the association said.

The association said a sum of 1 trillion VND out of 2 trillion VND, allocated to the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies to support social housing projects, should be transferred to four credit institutions - Vietcombank, Vietinbank, Agribank and BIDV - to provide preferential loans for social housing purchases.

In addition, the State budget should spend some 1-2 trillion VND annually in the 2018-20 period to provide loans for affordable home purchases at the preferential interest rate of 4.8 per cent per year.

The association also proposed mechanisms to be put in place to ensure the preferential lending package is used for the right purposes.

Further, preferential credits should also be provided to social housing developers to lower housing prices.

The 30 trillion VND housing stimulus package was introduced in 2013 when the real estate market faced high inventories and bad debts after the 2008-09 freeze.

Some 70 percent of the package was provided to home buyers at preferential interest rates. The package helped more than 56,000 low-income earners to own homes.