Low-income earners in urban areas and workers at industrial parks in Vietnam will soon realize their dreams to own a house thanks to a project for the 2021-2030 period funded by South Korea.

A social housing project in Hanoi. Photo: Kinh Te Do Thi

The “Establishment of the 2021-2030 comprehensive social housing policy in Vietnam” project, which was launched in 2018 under the non-refundable aid from the Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), is aimed to complete the regulatory framework on affordable housing segment that is in high demand in the lower middle-income country.

In a latest move, KOICA and the Vietnam’s Ministry of Construction are speeding up the implementation of the project that costs US$3 million from the government of South Korea.

It covers five components namely (1) assessing current situation of social housing for low-income earners in urban areas and laborers working in industrial parks; (2) having projection of affordable housing need in the 2021-2030 period; (3) completing legal framework on social housing by referring international experiences; (4) completing Law on Housing; (5) improving capacity of public officials working in this segment.

Housing is one of the important issues in Vietnam’s development agenda as stated in the 12th National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam since 2016. Accordingly, completing legal framework has been focused to facilitate the participation of all economic sectors, mostly the public-private partnership (PPP) form.

According to the Ministry of Construction, nearly 250 affordable housing projects totaling 5.4 million square meters for low-income earners in urban areas and workers at industrial parks have completed, supplying roughly 104,000 apartments.

There are more than 260 on-going projects providing about 219,000 apartments.

Vietnam’s affordable housing target by 2020 was 12.5 million square meters.