Social housing

Hanoi (VNA) – The State Bank of Vietnam continues to urge credit institutions to pay attention to the deployment and disbursement of the social housing credit package of around $5 billion.

This was stated today by the governor of the State Bank of VietnamNguyen Thi Hong, during an interpellation session of the sixth session of the National Assembly of Vietnam of the 15th legislature.

Answering thematic questions from deputies, Nguyen Thi Hong clarified that in recent times, the disbursement of credit packages has been limited due to the limited supply of housing and inadequate credit conditions.

It is a credit package with preferential interest rates coming from the financial resources of the participating banks, he explained.

In the near future, the State Bank will ask the people’s committees of provinces and cities to announce the list of projects eligible for loans and, at the same time, will strengthen information and propaganda work so that people clearly understand the implementation policy of this credit package.

According to Deputy Nguyen Anh Tri, to effectively implement the social housingthe needs and requirements of users in terms of quantity, area, location, price and quality must be understood to plan construction and supply plans.

According to the Government report presented to the National Assembly, as of the end of September 2023, 46 social housing projects in urban areas have been completed throughout the country, with a scale of about 20,210 units; and 419 projects are being implemented, with a scale of around 392,635 units.

Regarding the issue of cashless payments, Governor Nguyen Thi Hong assured that in recent times, the bank has implemented many specific solutions, such as revising the legal corridor to modify, supplement, complete and facilitate such payment method .

To date, many commercial activities are carried out through digital channels, with the application of technology to ensure security in payments such as customer authentication and QR code.

In the last nine months, cashless payment indicators recorded a notable increase, taking into account the increases in the rates of cashless payment transactions, through the Internet, mobile phones and QR codes of 49%, 60, 3%; 60.8% and 105%, respectively.

The State Bank will continue to review documents and coordinate with agencies to complete the legal corridor, adopt preventive solutions to secure information, ensure the safety and security of customers, and strengthen communication so that people have more information, Nguyen Thi Hong said.

Clarifying deputies’ questions on the causes and solutions for credit growth to reach the set target of 14%, Nguyen Thi Hong explained that the decline in business orders and the serious negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic They constitute main factors of a low credit increase.

According to official data, credit growth in the first nine months of this year only reached 5.91%.

According to Governor Nguyen Thi Hong, the State Bank has acted in the direction of creating the most favorable conditions for credit institutions, implemented solutions and urged credit institutions to review lending procedures to shorten times, minimize procedures and support people better.

When referring to solutions to prevent illegal credit, the governor said that this issue has raised great concern for the Party, the State, the National Assembly and the Government, and emphasized the need for all relevant authorities and branches to coordinate to minimize this problem./.

A fund to provide more resources for renovation. The government and the HLM world announced this Thursday that they had concluded an agreement providing 1.2 billion euros to renovate the social housing stock, without however achieving the large “pact of trust” wanted by the government which would have brought the sector out of the doldrums. On Wednesday evening, the Social Union for Housing (USH), the confederation of social landlords, approved a list of proposals sent on Sunday by the office of the Minister responsible for Housing, Patrice Vergriete.

“Today, you are offering us support for the ecological transition of 1.2 billion over three years, improvement of production loans of 8 billion, maintenance of a PTZ [prêt à taux zéro, ndlr] for social accession: your proposal is serious. We accept responsibility for it,” declared the president of the USH, Emmanuelle Cosse, during the closing plenary of its congress Thursday in Nantes.

Subsidized loans

The fund proposed by the State, endowed with 1.2 billion euros divided into 400 million per year, “aims to support a target of around 120,000 energy renovations per year in social housing and to gradually increase to 150,000”, promised Patrice Vergriete. “An agreement which marks the common commitment of the State and the HLM movement to jointly meet this double challenge of renovation and production”, he praised. This budgetary commitment should involve a government amendment to the 2024 finance bill. It should therefore allow landlords to meet the timetable imposed by law to eliminate thermal sieves.

The Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations must also increase its support for the HLM world, with an additional 150 million euros for the production of housing and the transformation of priority neighborhoods. It must also, via its subsidiary Banque des Territories, offer more advantageous loans for social housing, and more credits for intermediate housing – at regulated rents but higher than in social housing.

It will finally release, with the Ecological Transition Agency, subsidized loans for the connection of HLM to urban heating networks and the development of renewable energies in social housing. In total, these advantageous loans represent the equivalent of 650 million euros saved by social landlords, calculated Emmanuelle Cosse. Other more technical demands from the HLM world were taken up, such as maintaining the zero-interest loan in its current conditions for social access to property, while it must be tightened for the general public.

“Good news, not enough”

The agreement is rather surprising as discussions have been dragging on for months, with the HLM world regularly criticizing the government for making budgetary savings to its detriment. On the other hand, the “pact of trust” that the Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, had hoped for when she started at Matignon is not yet there. “We asked for a lot of billions, we have a few million… which is therefore good news, not enough, but good news,” summarized the president of the Federation of Private Social Landlords, Valérie Fournier.

The USH, said Emmanuelle Cosse, would have liked more long-term commitments from the executive, which would not force it to renegotiate each year to obtain favorable budgetary choices.

Another hole in the racket: no strong measures to revive the production of social housing, in free fall, with less than 85,000 new HLM authorizations planned for 2023. According to a study commissioned by the USH, 198,000 new housing units should be produced social services per year to respond to major demographic trends and reduce poor housing. And the number of households waiting for social housing has never been higher: 2.42 million, including 1.63 million for a first allocation.