Vietnam currently has 833 urban administrative units of all kinds, housing 39.3% of its population, up 0.5 percentage points from a year ago, much higher than an urbanization rate of 20% recorded in 2009, Kinh te & Do thi reported, quoting a report by the Ministry of Construction.

The rate of urbanization in Vietnam now reaches 39.3%. Photo: Kinhtedothi.vn

Up to 89% of the urban population has access to tap water as of end-June, up two percentage points from a year earlier. In addition, 86.5% of solid household waste is collected.

Fast urbanization has resulted in postive growth of the real estate and building materials market and causes needs for housing to increase. There is a shortage of affordable housing supply to meet these demands.

The ministry informed that house prices continue to rise, by 1.02% in Hanoi for the apartment sector and by 3.82% for landed houses. In Ho Chi Minh City, the rates are 3.5% and 8.36%, respectively.

Minister of Construction Pham Hong Ha said that in the second half of 2020, his ministry will continue to monitor the socio-economic situation to timely remove the difficulties for real estate developers.

The Ministry of Construction will keep rolling out a project of sustainable smart city development in Vietnam in the period of 2018 – 2025, with orientations to 2030. It will try its best to successfully organize a high-level forum on developing smart cities and an annual meeting on ASEAN Smart Urban Network in 2020.