Ho Chi Minh City to have 1,300 more social housing flats

Three social housing projects in Thu Duc City and Binh Chanh District, with more than 1,300 apartments, will start construction at the end of April, helping workers and low-income people to easily access accommodation.

Information was announced by the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Construction on April 19. The implementation of the projects is part of the plan to build low-cost housing that workers, laborers and low-income people can buy, in order to replace old and inadequate apartments.

According to the plan, two projects in Thu Duc City include accommodation for workers in Linh Trung Export Processing Zone 2 and a social housing project in a residential area in Long Truong ward, which will start construction on April 25-27. The total land area for these two projects is about 19,400 square meters, with a scale of 1,086 cheap apartments.

In Binh Chanh District, the social housing apartment project in Nguyen Son housing area will start on April 26, with 242 apartments on a total construction area of nearly 3,700 square meters.

In addition to the above three works, at the end of April, Ho Chi Minh City also broke ground on the project to renovate and rebuild Thanh Da apartments in Binh Thanh district with 1,750 apartments.

From 2016 to 2020, Ho Chi Minh City has developed more than 1.2 million square meters of social housing, providing accommodation for more than 66,000 people.

According to a survey by the Ho Chi Minh City Labor Federation, about 1.3 million workers and laborers in the city have housing needs. Of which, only nearly 40,000 workers (accounting for 3%) live in accommodation and dormitories built in industrial zones. Most workers live in motel rooms with an average area of 14 square meters each, the average rent is VND1.6 million per month and there are about 4 people living together. Workers often spend 10-15% of their income to pay for accommodation.

At the meeting with voters at the end of last year, Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Phan Van Mai acknowledged that the city welcomed a large number of workers, contributing to the construction and development of the city, but taking care of them was not properly invested. In the near future, the city will build one million low-cost houses to replace old and inadequate apartments, so that workers and low-income people can more easily access accommodation.