A VnExpress study has found a social housing project in HCMC’s Thu Duc City started selling apartments at VND18-22 million per square meter in 2017. The apartments’ prices in the secondary market surged to VND30 million late August this year.

At a social housing project built for rent for 49 years in Binh Tan District, tenants had to pay VND14 million per square meter in 2017, and this has risen to VND18-19.3 million in the secondary market.

Tran Khanh Quang, CEO of Viet An Hoa Real Estate Investment Joint Stock Company, told VnExpress: "It is normal for properties’ resale prices to increase over time due to inflation, and social apartments are no exception." Land prices have now doubled against 4-5 years ago, while construction costs have increased by 50%, he said.

He said the price hike of social housing apartments after five years also had to do with thin supplies.

The Ho Chi Minh City Real Estate Association has also noted there is still a big demand for social housing among low-income earners in urban areas, but construction of many projects has been sluggish, partly due to prolonged site clearance difficulties.

Despite various tax and loan benefits, developers say returns from building social housing are too low while procedures are cumbersome.

Construction Minister Nguyen Thanh Nghi recently called for building a million houses by 2030 for industrial workers and people with low incomes.

Vietnam has built 7.8 million square meters of social housing in the last few years, providing shelter to hundreds of thousands of workers' and low-income families, but this has only met part of the demand, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh has pointed out.

A Construction Ministry report says there are 310 urban social housing projects in the country with 156,000 homes; and another 401 with 455,000 homes are under development.