Department of Construction guides on buying and renting social housing

The Department of Construction has just issued a document guiding a number of contents regulating the purchase, lease, and hire-purchase of social housing invested in and built according to projects and not using public investment capital or trade union financial resources in the province.

Accordingly, the subjects eligible to buy, rent, or hire-purchase social housing in the province are specified in Clauses 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11, Article 76 of the 2023 Housing Law, including:

(1) People with revolutionary contributions and relatives of martyrs who are eligible for housing improvement support according to the provisions of the Ordinance on preferential treatment for people with revolutionary contributions.

(2) Poor and near-poor households in rural areas.

(3) Poor and near-poor households in rural areas frequently affected by natural disasters and climate change.

(4) Poor and near-poor households in urban areas.

(5) Low-income people in urban areas.

(6) Workers and laborers working at enterprises, cooperatives, and cooperative unions inside and outside industrial parks.

(7) Officers, professional soldiers, non-commissioned officers of the people's armed forces, police workers, civil servants, defense workers and public employees currently serving in the army; people working in cryptography, people working in other positions in cryptography organizations receiving salaries from the state budget currently working. These subjects have not yet enjoyed the housing support policy for the people's armed forces.

(8) Cadres, civil servants and public employees as prescribed by law on cadres, civil servants and public employees.

(9) The subject has returned the official residence according to the provisions of Clause 4, Article 125 of the Housing Law 2023, except in cases where the official residence was revoked due to violations of the provisions of this law.

(10) Households and individuals whose land is recovered and whose houses must be cleared and demolished according to the provisions of law but have not yet received compensation from the State in the form of houses and residential land.

(11) Students of universities, academies, colleges, vocational schools, and specialized schools as prescribed by law; students of public ethnic boarding schools. These subjects are only allowed to rent social housing during their study period.

The pilot social housing project phase I in Thach Linh ward (now Thanh Sen ward) was put into use in 2019.

Regarding conditions for purchasing, renting, or hire-purchasing social housing:

Subjects (1), (2), (3), (4), (5), (6), (7), (8), (9) and (10) mentioned above, in order to be eligible to purchase or hire-purchase social housing, must not own a house in the province, have not purchased or hired-purchase social housing, have not enjoyed housing support policies in the province, or own a house but the average housing area per capita is lower than ^15m2 of floor space/person, or own a house but it is far from the workplace; in the case of subjects specified in points b, c, d, dd, e and g, Clause 1, Article 45 of the Housing Law 2023, they must not be living in official housing.

Specifically:

- The case of not having a house of one's own is determined when subjects (1), (2), (3), (4), (5), (6), (7), (8), (9), (10) and the subject's spouse (if any) do not have their names on the land use rights certificate, ownership of assets attached to land in the province at the time of submitting the application for purchase or lease-purchase of social housing.

- The beneficiaries of social housing support policies according to the provisions of law who already own houses must have an average housing area per capita of less than ^15m2 of floor space per person. The average housing area per capita is determined based on the following: the applicant, his/her spouse, father, mother (if any) and children (if any) who are registered as permanent residents in that house.

- Subjects who are entitled to social housing support policies according to the provisions of law have their own housing but the location of the housing is far from the workplace. In order to be eligible to purchase or lease-purchase social housing, the distance from the location of their own housing to the workplace must be at least 30km or more and the distance from the location of the social housing for sale or lease-purchase to the workplace must be a maximum of 15km. The distance is determined according to the shortest road route using highly reliable electronic map software (Google Maps, Vietmap, ...); the location of the subject's housing and workplace are determined at the time of submitting the application to purchase or lease-purchase social housing.

For subjects (5), (6) and (8) mentioned above, the following income conditions must be met:

- In case the applicant is single, the actual monthly income received must not exceed 15 million VND, calculated according to the salary and wage table confirmed by the agency, unit, or enterprise where the applicant works.

- In case the applicant is married according to the provisions of law, the applicant and his/her spouse must have a total monthly income of no more than 30 million VND calculated according to the salary and wage table confirmed by the agency, unit or enterprise where the applicant works.

- The time to determine income conditions within 1 consecutive year, calculated from the time the subject specified in this clause submits a valid application to the investor to register to buy or lease-purchase social housing.

b) In case the above subject (5) does not have a labor contract, if he/she is single, the actual monthly income received shall not exceed 15 million VND, if he/she is married according to the provisions of law, the applicant and his/her spouse shall have a total actual monthly income received not exceeding 30 million VND. Within 7 days from the date of receipt of the request for confirmation, the People's Committee at the commune level shall confirm the income condition for 1 consecutive year from the time the subject specified in this clause submits a valid application to the investor to register to buy or rent-purchase social housing.

c) For subjects (2), (3), (4) mentioned above, they must be poor or near-poor households according to the Government 's poverty standards.

d) For the above subject (7), the regulations are as follows:

- In case the applicant is single, the actual monthly income received must not exceed the total income of an officer with the rank of Colonel (including basic salary and allowances according to regulations) confirmed by the agency or unit where he/she works or manages.

- In case the applicant is married according to the law:

+ The applicant and his/her spouse are both subjects specified in Clause 7, Article 76 of the Housing Law, and their total monthly income is not more than twice the total income of an officer with the rank of Colonel (including basic salary and allowances according to regulations) confirmed by the agency or unit where they work and manage;

+ The applicant's spouse is not subject to the provisions of Clause 7, Article 76 of the Housing Law, and has a total monthly income not exceeding 1.5 times the total income of an officer with the rank of Colonel (including basic salary and allowances according to regulations) confirmed by the agency, unit, or enterprise where the subject works.

+ In case the applicant's spouse does not have a labor contract, the People's Committee at the commune level will confirm the income condition.

- Time to confirm income conditions within 1 consecutive year, calculated from the time of submitting application for purchase or lease-purchase of housing for the people's armed forces.

The pilot social housing project in Thach Linh ward (now Thanh Sen ward) - phase II started on August 19, 2025.

Subjects (1), (2), (3), (4), (5), (6), (7), (8), (9), (10) and (11) mentioned above, if renting social housing, do not have to meet the housing and income conditions as prescribed by the Housing Law 2023.

Based on the information about social housing projects in the province that has been announced, households and individuals who need to submit their application to buy social housing directly to the project investor. Each household and individual who is eligible and meets the conditions prescribed by law can only submit registration documents at one project and can only buy or rent one social housing unit and at each time, can only rent one social housing unit.

Source: https://baohatinh.vn/so-xay-dung-huong-dan-ve-mua-thue-nha-o-xa-hoi-post294468.html