The Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) has just sent a written reply to the Ministry of Construction on requesting comments on the draft circular amending and supplementing a number of articles of Circular No. 09/2021/TT-BXD guiding the implementation of a number of contents of Decree No. 100/2015/ND-CP on development and management of social housing and Decree No. 49/2021/ND-CP amending and supplementing a number of articles of Decree No. Decree No. 100/2015/ND-CP on development and management of social housing.

Accordingly, on amending the principle of selecting investors for social housing construction projects in the form of bidding, VCCI said that the draft revised regulations "have detailed construction planning already approved by competent authorities” to “belonging to the area for which zoning planning has been formulated, or for approval of the zoning planning or general planning, for cases where zoning planning is not required.

In addition, the land area expected to implement the housing project must be detailed planning approval by the specialized construction planning agency affiliated to the level approving the detailed planning, specifying the planned land use norms and related requirements. on connecting social infrastructure, technical infrastructure.

According to VCCI, this regulation needs to be reviewed because according to the provisions of Clause 4, Article 11 of Decree 25/2020/ND-CP (amended), the conditions for determining an investment project using land must select a contractor is "construction planning at the rate of 1/2000 or 1/500 (if any) or urban zoning planning at the rate of 1/2000 or 1/5000 according to the provisions of law".

VCCI said that some businesses think that this regulation is appropriate and effective for urban and commercial housing projects and is consistent with the Law on Urban Planning (investors of investment projects to prepare detailed planning for investment areas) is suitable to practice because the zoning planning has identified the criteria for state agencies to make bidding documents, investors to make invitation documents. 

Therefore, the VCCI believes that the draft does not need to add additional conditions, "at the same time, the land area expected to implement the housing project must be approved by a specialized construction planning agency at the same level for detailed planning and regulations on planned land use norms and related requirements on connection of social and technical infrastructure”. VCCI also suggested that the drafting committee consider removing this content from the above regulation.

Regarding the amendment of regulations on methods of determining the selling price and rental price of social housing (Articles 2, Article 3 Draft amendments to Article 9, Article 10 of Circular 09/2021/TT-BXD), VCCI said According to the provisions of Article 9 of Circular 09/2021/TT-BXD, from the profit from the sale, lease, or lease purchase of the commercial housing area in the social housing investment project for the purpose of "offset social housing investment costs, contribute to reducing the selling price, rental price, and rental-purchase price of social housing and reducing the project's management and operation costs of social housing".

According to VCCI, the draft amendments to the formula for calculating the selling price and rental price of social housing in the direction of removing the regulation on the profit deduction of the commercial housing area in the investment project to build social housing. Social housing is allocated for the area of social housing for sale, which will increase the price of selling, renting, and renting-purchase social housing. Therefore, it is necessary to assess the impact on this adjustment.

Moreover, VCCI also believes that according to the provisions of Article 9 of Circular 09/2021/TT-BXD, the accounting of profits earned from the commercial business to offset the costs of social housing must clearly state the compensation to reduce the selling price, rental price, lease purchase price, compensation for the management and operation of social housing and must be clearly shown in the financial balance plan of the entire project as prescribed at point d of this clause. The Department of Construction or the agency with the function of appraising the selling price, rental price, and rental purchase price of social housing in the locality is responsible for checking this accounting of the project investor.

"In case the draft removes the regulation on the commercial profit deduction when determining the selling/renting price of social housing, it is not clear whether the profit from the commercial part will be controlled or not?", VCCI questioned and request the drafting committee to clearly define this issue to facilitate implementation.

Regarding the formula for calculating the selling price of social housing after renting, VCCI said that according to the regulations on renting social housing, social houses are only allowed to be sold after 5 years. According to the reflection, businesses are having difficulty determining the selling price of this social housing area, because the formula for calculating the selling price does not take into account the case of selling the house after the rental period. This makes the determination of the selling price inconsistent.

In this regard, VCCI proposed the drafting committee to supplement the formula for calculating the social selling price after 5 years of leasing.