Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính issued an official dispatch on Sunday asking relevant ministries, agencies and local authorities to take drastic solutions to ensure the safe, healthy and sustainable development of the real estate market.

 

Bottlenecks related to legal procedures, credit accessibility, land procedures and pricing have pushed the real estate market into a lot of difficulty although the Government has made efforts to address these problems since late 2022.

 

PM asks relevant ministries, agencies and local authorities to enhance accountability to remove difficulties for the real estate market, taking it as a pressing issue.

 

Specifically, the Ministry of Construction must complete the legal framework for housing and real estate business. The focus must be placed on removing bottlenecks, especially in administrative procedures, to speed up the implementation of housing, urban centre and industrial park projects to create spillover effects.

 

The ministry is urged to strengthen the implementation of the project on building at least 1 million apartments for low-income earners and workers in 2021-30 period, together with raising new solutions to speed up disbursement for social housing development.

 

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment must cut unnecessary administrative procedures and move roadblocks in land procedures and pricing.

 

It must set up a working group immediately to solve problems related to land leasing, land pricing and land planning, especially in major cities like Hà Nội, Đà Nẵng and HCM City.

 

The State Bank of Việt Nam must keep a close watch on the real estate market and credit flow into the sector to improve capital accessibility for buyers and developers.

 

Especially, feasible solutions must be applied to efficiently implement the VNĐ120 trillion credit package for social housing developments, homes for workers and renovations of old apartment buildings.

 

Enterprises need to take actions

 

Besides the Government’s determination, actions from real estate enterprises play an important role in reviving the property market.

 

The HCM City Real Estate Association has urged real estate enterprises to implement the Prime Minister’s directive on restructuring the products and reducing housing prices appropriately with incomes to give a hand to solve the market difficulty.

 

Although the Government and local authorities have actively raised solutions to remove difficulties for the realty market, enterprises seemed not to make adequate efforts, especially in restructuring products and lowering housing prices, the association said.

 

Lê Hoàng Châu, the association’s President, said that enterprises should respond to the PM’s call of lowering housing prices in the context of market difficulty.

 

Enterprises should restructure their products towards the real market demand and reduce selling prices to ensure appropriateness to incomes, Châu said.

 

Châu cited statistics that in HCM City, more than 15,000 apartments were released in the first nine months, more than 66 per cent of which were of the high-end segment while the rest were medium-segment, and there were no affordable homes.

 

While the supply has dropped due to legal bottlenecks since 2020, most supply is of the high-end segment, pushing the market into a severe shortage of affordable homes and social housing projects.

 

Real estate enterprises should lower selling prices and reduce profit expectations together with offering promotions to stimulate demand, create cash flow and increase liquidity, Châu said.

 

In the long term, developers should focus on affordable housing development and play a role in implementing the Government’s programme of building at least 1 million social housing units in 2021-30 period.

 

“The joint effort is vital, from both the Government and the business community, to overcome the difficulties facing the sustainable development of the economy,” he stressed. — VNS