HANOI: The Construction Ministry says that it is stepping up efforts to expand social and rental housing in the second half of this year (2H26) to improve housing affordability and support a more stable property market.
According to the ministry, 96 social housing projects have been completed across the country so far this year to supply 27,636 apartments to the market.
Fourteen provinces and cities are expected to meet or exceed their assigned social housing targets.
Nationwide, 866 social housing projects have been developed with a combined investment of about 606 trillion dong and a total of 757,338 apartment units.
Of these, 289 projects with a total of 197,279 units have been completed, 261 projects with 254,816 units are under construction and 316 projects with 305,243 units have received investment approval.
Under a government resolution issued in January, Vietnam aims to complete around 158,700 social housing units this year.
Chief of the ministry’s office Lam Van Hoang said Vietnam’s property market showed positive signs in 1H26, with apartment prices largely stable compared with the previous quarter, although they remained at relatively high levels.
He said the Construction Ministry has completed preparations for a national real estate information system and electronic property identification database, which are expected to improve market transparency.
In 2H26, the ministry will continue revising the Law on Housing and the Law on Real Estate Business while finalising national technical standards on apartment building safety, including requirements for residential buildings equipped with electric vehicle charging stations.
The ministry is also preparing detailed regulations on the development and management of social housing and drafting a resolution aimed at removing legal obstacles affecting social housing projects, while developing the national technical standard for rental housing.
Reports from local authorities show that Vietnam currently has 130,571 rental housing units under construction.
A review of national rental housing demand will be completed before the Construction Ministry assigns specific targets to provincial governments.
The ministry also said that transport infrastructure development saw significant improvement in 1H26, with 395km of expressways completed, enabling uninterrupted travel along the eastern North-South Expressway from Lang Son to Ca Mau.
As the national road network has expanded with 219km of new highways and 212km of upgraded roads, the national highway system now totals 24,595km in length, in addition to 1,701km of coastal roads.
The ministry has also completed around 1,600 technical standards, 135 technical regulations and more than 16,000 construction cost norms to support major infrastructure projects.
Another 14,600 cost norms for railway projects are expected to be completed by July 20, to provide a basis for Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City to implement planned urban rail developments.
Despite this progress, Construction Minister Tran Hong Minh said mobilising private investment for infrastructure remains challenging due to the lack of long-term financing mechanisms.
He also pointed to slow progress on some major projects, weak public investment disbursement in the first six months of the year, limited multimodal transport connectivity and uneven planning implementation across localities.
He urged efforts to help resolve bottlenecks facing infrastructure projects, particularly land clearance and construction material supplies, to accelerate construction and improve public investment disbursement. — Viet Nam News/ANN
