What are conditions for purchasing social houses in Vietnam?

Hello Mr. Hung, for your question, LawNet would like to answer as follows:

1. What is a social house?

Pursuant to Clause 7 Article 3 of the Law on housing 2014 of Vietnam, social house means any house provided for entities benefiting from the policies on housing support carried out by the State as prescribed in this Law.

Unlike ordinary houses, social houses are built to provide for a number of special, prioritized groups in society.

According to Clause 1 Article 7 of the Decree No. 100/2015/NĐ-CP of Vietnam’s Government, social houses are divided into 02 types:

- Social houses are apartment buildings:

If social houses are apartment buildings, the apartments must be designed and built in accordance with construction standards and regulations; the area of each apartment is from 25 m2 to 70 m2.

- Social houses are row houses:

If social houses are row houses, the area of each apartment must not exceed 70 m2 and land use coefficient does not exceed 2 times according to the construction planning approved by a competent authority.

2. Entities eligible for purchasing social housing

Pursuant to Article 49 of the Law on housing 2014 of Vietnam, entities eligible for purchasing social housing include:

- People with meritorious services to the revolution prescribed in law on preferential treatment for people with meritorious services to the revolution;

- Households living in poverty or near poverty in rural areas;

- Households that are often affected by natural disasters or climate changes in rural areas;

- Individuals living in low income, poverty or near poverty in the urban areas;

- Employees working in enterprises inside or outside the industrial zones;

- Commissioned officers, professional and technical non-commissioned officers, standing army, and workers in the agencies of People’s Police and People’s Army;

- Officials and civil servants prescribed in law on officials and public employees;

- Entities who have returned official residence as prescribed Clause 5 Article 81 of the Law on housing 2014 of Vietnam;

- Students of institutes, universities, colleges, vocational training institutions; students of the public ethnic boarding schools using social housing during their duration of study;

Households or individuals subject to land withdrawal and land clearance as prescribed without any compensation in form of housing or residential land paid by the State.

3. What are requirements for eligibility for purchasing social housing?

Pursuant to Clause 1 Article 51 of the Law on housing 2014 of Vietnam, entities eligible for purchasing social housing mentioned above shall satisfy the requirements pertaining to housing, residence, and income, specifically as follow:

Article 51. Requirements for eligibility for incentive policies on social housing

The entities eligible for the policies as prescribed in Clause 1 Article 50 of this Law shall satisfy the requirements pertaining to housing, residence, and income as follow:

a) They have not had any house under their homeownership, have not concluded any agreements on social housing purchase, lease, or lease purchase, have not benefited from any policy on housing or residential land support in any shape or form at the places where they live, study, or have houses under their homeownership, but the floor space per capita in the household is lower than the minimum space standard regulated by the Government in every period and every area;

b) They are required to register permanent residence in the province where the social housing is located; if not, they are required to register temporary residence in that province for at least one year, except for cases prescribed in Clause 9 Article 49 of this Law;

c) With respect to entities prescribed in Clause 4, 5, 6 and 7 Article 49 of this Law, they are required to be not subject to regular income tax as prescribed in law on personal income tax; with respect to households living in poverty and near poverty, they must be subject to the households living in poverty and near poverty as prescribed in regulations of the Prime Minister. With respect to entities prescribed in Clause 1, 8, 9 and 10 Article 49 of this Law, they are not required to satisfy requirements pertaining to income as prescribed in this Point.

Thus, entities eligible for purchasing social housing mentioned above shall satisfy the 3 requirements pertaining to housing, residence, and income, specifically as follow:

- Regarding housing, entities eligible for purchasing social housing; must be an individual who has not yet enjoyed the housing support policy in the living area; in case of having a house under their ownership, the house area is only per capita compared to the whole household, which is lower than the minimum housing area.

- Regarding residence, entities eligible for purchasing social housing are required to register permanent residence in the province where the social housing is located; if not, they are required to register temporary residence in that province for at least one year.

- Regarding income, entities eligible for purchasing social housing must satisfy requirements on income as follows:

+ Not subject to regular income tax;

+ Subject to households living in poverty and near poverty.

Regards!

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