NEWS
City to build 2.7 million square meters of low-cost housing
23-10-2012
 HCMC Chairman Le Hoang Quan (R) and Minister of Construction Trinh Dinh Dung at the signing ceremony of the housing development program in HCMC last Saturday - Photo: Van Nam |
The city late last week struck a deal with the Ministry of Construction to jointly implement this huge plan.
By 2015, the city and the ministry will construct an additional 600,000 square meters of housing for about 100,000 students, 1.3 million square meters or 17,500 condos for low-income earners in urban areas and 800,000 square meters for workers in industrial parks and export processing zones.
The city will also rebuild 25 aging apartment buildings which have severely deteriorated on total areas of 350,000 square meters or around 6,500 apartments.
According to the city Department of Construction, the city will make plans for deploying every specific project and projecting costs. The city’s chairman Le Hoang Quan told the signing ceremony that the city as of late 2011 had achieved the target of building 17.5 square meters of housing per capita.
Speaking with local media last Saturday, Nguyen Tran Nam, deputy minister of construction, said his ministry had proposed the prime minister allow construction of low-cost homes with a minimum area of 25 square meters a unit. As part of the housing development plan, the city will consider changing purposes of slow-moving serviced apartment projects into low-cost homes, and publicizing a list of projects in need of investors.
Investment in low-cost homes is classified into three categories, with one by the State, one by enterprises with State support and one by individuals, said Minister of Construction Trinh Dinh Dung.
Low-cost homes built with 100% Governmental investment will be leased to students and civil servants. Meanwhile, companies and citizens that get involved in low-cost home projects will be entitled to land use fee support, preferential credit, and tax reductions.
The ministry is drafting a decree on these incentives and will soon submit it to the Government for approval.
The total area of housing built in 1999-2009 nationwide is equivalent to the combined area constructed in the period before 1999, Dung said. However, housing distribution in the population remains unfair as there are many people owning many homes at a time while others are living in low-quality accommodations, he noted.
The city on Sunday inaugurated five blocks of housing with 30,000 units for students at the Vietnam National University in HCMC’s dormitory in Linh Trung Ward, Thu Duc District, which is also part of the housing development plan for students in the city.
