Continue to apply social housing loan policy from 2018

A representative of the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies said that it will officially launch loans to buy social housing from 2018. This is good news for those who want to borrow preferential loans to buy social housing after a long time of disbursement of the 30,000 billion VND package.

Dreams are hard to reach when the 30,000 billion package has run out

Ms. Nguyen Trang (Long Bien, Hanoi) just got married but both of them had prepared to save money in advance to have money to buy a house after "coming home together". Having saved some money, they were eagerly registering to buy a house in a project in Tam Trinh when the preferential credit package of 30 trillion VND was disbursed.

"We have to wait for the next packages because our income is limited and we don't dare borrow money at market interest rates," Trang confided.

The promulgation of Decree 100/2015/ND-CP on social housing has made many people happy, including Trang and her husband. Accordingly, the Prime Minister decided that the interest rate for loans to buy social housing through the Social Policy Bank is only 4.8%/year. However, due to difficulties in capital allocation, this credit policy has not yet been implemented.

According to Mr. Le Hoang Chau, Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Real Estate Association, in reality, both investors and beneficiaries of social housing cannot access preferential credit sources, so they face many difficulties.

For customers who have signed contracts to buy social housing but have not received their houses in 2016 because the project has not been completed, from January 1, 2017 onwards, they will no longer be able to continue to disburse the preferential credit package of 30,000 billion VND and there is no other source of preferential credit to replace it. These subjects must borrow commercially with high interest rates accompanied by the condition of having collateral, or must borrow from outside the society with very high interest rates.

Meanwhile, investors of social housing projects still have to continue to borrow commercial loans with stricter conditions (since June 1, 2016) to complete the construction. Thus, both investors and home buyers are facing difficulties.

There will be a "way out" in 2018

Clearly identifying the social housing loan/hire purchase program as a highly humane program, expected by the whole society, so right after the Housing Law and the Government's guiding documents stipulated that the Social Policy Bank implement the social housing loan program, the Social Policy Bank took steps to prepare to be ready to implement the loan as soon as the Government provided capital to implement the program.

Mr. Nguyen Van Ly, Deputy General Director of the Bank for Social Policies, said: “Currently, the Government has allocated 500 billion VND for the bank to implement this policy. The bank also mobilized another 500 billion VND. In addition, many localities also have plans to entrust loans for this program. In 2018, the Bank for Social Policies will officially provide loans for purchasing/hiring-purchasing social housing.”

The content that many people are interested in is the regulation in Clause 5, Article 13 of Decree 100/2015/ND-CP: "Customers who are households and individuals when borrowing preferential capital from the Social Policy Bank must make monthly savings deposits at the Social Policy Bank, with a minimum period of 12 months and the deposit level according to the regulations of the lender".

Regarding this issue, Mr. Nguyen Van Ly said that the Social Policy Bank has two methods: First, lending before making savings; second, making savings before lending.

“Both of these methods are legal. Customers who deposit savings need to clearly identify that this savings activity is not saving for interest, but is essentially a savings activity of the borrower to create equity capital to participate in the loan project,” Mr. Ly explained.

The Ho Chi Minh City Real Estate Association proposed that the National Assembly, the Government, and the State Bank allocate an annual budget of about VND1,000 - 2,000 billion in the 2018 - 2020 period for social housing beneficiaries to borrow, with an interest rate of about 4.8%/year. It is proposed to allocate this capital to the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies and four credit institutions, Vietcombank, Vietinbank, Agribank, and BIDV, for implementation.

In the long term, the Association recommends that the National Assembly, the Government, and the State Bank have a mechanism to implement preferential credit policies for investors of social housing projects according to the provisions of the Housing Law, first of all social housing projects for rent, similar to Resolution 02/NQ-CP dated January 7, 2013 of the previous Government, to reduce the cost of social housing.

According to Hoang Duong/baotintuc