HCM City (VNA) – The supply of affordable and social housing in Ho Chi Minh City continued to be far below the demand due to a shortage in the segment in the first sixth months of this year.

According to Director of the city Department of Construction Tran Hoang Quan, among nearly 12,000 apartments from 14 projects meeting conditions to mobilise investments in the first half of 2021, 7,000 units, or 58.92 percent, are in the high-end segment and the remaining in the middle segment.

Compared to the same period last year, although the number of projects meeting requirements to mobilise investments is unchanged, the number of housing rises 61.5 percent, with a 122.57-percent increase in the high-end segment and a 294.85-percent increase in the middle segment. However, there is no affordable housing project.

According to Le Hoang Chau, President of the HCM City Real Estate Association, said that in recent years, the city has seen an  oversupply in the high-end apartment but a shortage in affordable and social housing.

In order to address the problem the municipal People’s Committee has recently approved a housing construction project in the city in the 2021-2030 period. It defined that currently, social housing projects can supply about 2.4 million sq.m of floor with about 27,574 apartments.

In the 2021-2030 period, the city will develop about 4 million sq.m of floor of social apartments, with about 1.8 million sq.m of floor will be developed in the next five years.

To this end, the city will diversify the form of investment in social housing projects for low-income earners, mostly using non-State budget capital.

Meanwhile, the city will review land funds to allocate 20 percent of over 10-hectare commercial housing projects to build social housing./.