The purpose of the workshop is to discuss and find out solutions for the development of social housing, affordable commercial housing in accordance with the practical conditions of Ho Chi Minh City, by referring to models of social security apartments priced at 100 million VND in Binh Duong Province.

Participants included Mr. Dinh La Thang – Secretary  of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee, Mr. Le Van Khoa - Vice Chairman of HCMC People's Committee, Mr. Tran Trong Tuan - Director of HCMC Department of Construction and representatives of the real estate, construction and building materials enterprise, etc. and reporters and news agencies in the city. The workshop also included the participation of Dr. Truong Anh Tuan – President of Hoang Quan Group (HQC), as a pioneer in the development of social housing in Ho Chi Minh City and the Southern provinces. He reported and discussed the implementation of the Hoang Quan Social Housing in Ho Chi Minh City as well as recommendations in the investment process.

The workshop “Development of Social Housing & Affordable Commercial Housing in HCMC

At the workshop, Mr. Le Hoang Chau - President of HCMC Real Estate Association (HoREA) reported on experiences from the social housing development model of Binh Duong, and presented the situation and forecast of demand for social housing, affordable commercial housing in Ho Chi Minh City. Accordingly, the current population of Ho Chi Minh City has reached nearly 13 million people, of which nearly 3 million immigrants, accounting for about 23% of the population. In the next 10 years, the demand for social housing, affordable commercial housing in the city is expected to reach 1 million apartments. Solving the need for housing with adequate basic facilities is considered to be the political task of the city, with a human nature and profound social significance.

Mr. Dinh La Thang – Secretary  of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee emphasized “We need to learn good things, to absorb creativity. We may even accept risks, but we shall not be stereotyped. We need to learn the politic decision in order to solve the problem. Our main goal is to implement projects on social housing and affordable housing. However, we should not apply mechanically the way of Binh Duong because of the peculiarities of different localities”.

Mr. Dinh La Thang – Secretary  of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee is presenting at the workshop

He also asked leaders of Ho Chi Minh City to listen the ideas of enterprises in order to absorb and improve the policy institutions. In particular, it is necessary to create a linkage chain and to calculate a reasonable price among construction material companies and investors for making a product with affordable price and rent matching the needs and financial capacity of low-income people.

In that spirit, Mr. Dinh La Thang and the Chairs Board listened to the sharing and recommendations of enterprises in the field of real estate, construction, building materials, especially enterprises which directly invested in the projects of social housing, housing for workers, affordable commercial houses in Ho Chi Minh City such as Hoang Quan, Le Thanh, Dat Lanh, Nam Long, Vingroup, Thien Phat, Hoa Binh, Hung Thinh, Dai Quang Minh, Tay Nam, Steel Corporation, Ha Tien Cement Corporation, etc. and BIDV Bank - North Saigon Branch.

President of Ho Chi Minh City Real Estate Association (HoREA) – Mr. Le Hoang Chau is drawing experience from the social housing development model of Binh Duong, and presenting the situation and forecast of demand for social housing, affordable commercial housing in Ho Chi Minh City

At the workshop, Dr. Truong Anh Tuan – President of Hoang Quan Group (HQC) also shared “At the present, Hoang Quan Group has three social housing projects in Ho Chi Minh City, including HQC Plaza, HQC Hoc Mon and HOF-HQC Ho Hoc Lam. Of which, HQC Plaza (1,735 apartments) was completed, handed over and put into use; HQC Hoc Mon (562 apartments) is being handed over; HOF-HQC Ho Hoc Lam (718 apartments, invested by HOF and Hoang Quan Group) has just finished block D and being continued construction. In addition, in the next time, Hoang Quan Group will continue to implement HQC Binh Trung Dong (260 apartments), HQC An Phu Tay (311 apartments), HQC Binh Tan I (1,420 apartments), HQC Binh Tan II (530 apartments), etc.”.

Dr. Truong Anh Tuan – President of Hoang Quan Group (HQC) is reporting on social housing investment and presenting recommendations to the Leader of the city

However, Dr. Truong Anh Tuan also presented some problems of the Hoang Quan Group in the process of investing and implementing social housing, whereby proposed recommendations for the implementation of social housing and affordable housing in Ho Chi Minh City was faster and more effective:

- To improve the legal process; shorten time for administrative procedures completion to quickly implement projects.

- To create conditions for enterprises to cooperate in the supply chain of construction materials and land fund tender of HCM City in a public and transparent manner, thereby selecting many good investors to participate in the projects of affordable housing in the city.

- For the policy mechanism, the Leader of the city can create favorable conditions for investors to directly exchange with district authorities about the difficulties in the project implementation. At the same time, it is necessary to create a mechanism for enterprises to invest more easily in social housing urban areas such as residential area of 36.5ha in Binh Tan district.

- After finishing the bidding package of VND 30,000 billion, the capital for investors and buyers of social houses is leveling off. The leader of the city can play an intermediary role to connect and support investors with bank loans at commercial rates in order to invest in social housing and housing around canals.

- The responsibility of enterprises which have been listed on the stock exchange brings profits to shareholders, partners and employees. Therefore, the leader of the city should create conditions for enterprises to earn a certain profit in accordance with the law when they participated in the projects of social housing and affordable commercial housing.

Hoang Quan Group affirmed its commitment to supply at least 20,000 apartments in Ho Chi Minh City from now until 2020. Particularly for houses along the canals, the Hoang Quan registered to renovate at least 2,000 apartments and more with the support of the City's Leader.

Mr. Le Van Khoa – Vice-Chairman of HCMC People’s Committee is proposing HCMC Department of Construction as a focal point for enterprises when carrying out administrative and legal procedures

After the presentation of the enterprises, Mr. Dinh La Thang also directed directly. “All investment procedures should be submitted to the Department of Construction and resolved to investors within 6 months for the project deployment”.

For the status of social housing in Ho Chi Minh City, he suggested that enterprises should invest in large plots of planned land in many industrial zones and some neighboring provinces and he also suggested Ho Chi Minh City leadership could cooperate with enterprises in order to organize design contests to provide housing models in accordance with the needs of the people but still meet the planning, avoid the formation of slums in the city.

He also suggested creating an open mechanism for the sale of social housing because the current regulations are stereotyped such as the buyers are only bought, sold or transferred their apartments after five years. In fact, it is necessary to create favorable conditions for low-income people if they want to change their place of residence better after buying a social house.

Mr. Le Van Khoa - Vice Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee also presented the responsibility of the City People’s Committee on creating public land fund for enterprises in order that they can deploy projects of social housing and affordable commercial housing and support to improve the process, administrative procedures and assign the Department of Construction to be the focal point, realize the “one door” process.

Mr. Tran Trong Tuan – Director of HCMC Department of Construction is presenting a co-operation with enterprises to bring affordable social housing and housing to low income people.

Mr. Tran Trong Tuan - Director of Ho Chi Minh City Department of Construction said that he would cooperate with enterprises to reduce the cost of social housing and coordinate with other departments to reform the administrative procedures, shorten the time and create conditions for enterprises to invest and construct the social housing and affordable commercial housing.

Source: Hoang Quan Group