Developers offer special plan for homebuyers
Developers offer special plan for homebuyers
A number of commercial-housing developers that want to be eligible for the Government’s VND30-trillion low-cost home loan program have introduced a special plan in which buyers will pay for 70 square meters of floor space even though their apartments are a dozen meters larger.
To join the incentive loan program, developers of apartment projects must design their units no bigger than 70 square meters each. In reality, there are some finished projects where the area of apartments is bigger than the prescribed .
To prop up apartment sales, certain project developers are weighing allowing homebuyers to pay for 70 square meters and get the surplus space for free.
Le Hoang Chau, chairman of the HCMC Real Estate Association (HoREA), said Tan Hung Real Estate Joint Stock Company has floated this idea.
The company has completed the Tan Kien apartment project in HCMC’s outlying district of Binh Chanh with 653 units measuring 84 square meters each and selling for VND14 million per square meter.
To meet the requirement for access to preferential home loans, the developer is willing to give 14 square meters of floor space to homebuyers.
For the apartments measuring over 70 square meters a unit, Chau said, the city has approved a tolerance of plus 5%, which means an apartment subject to the preferential lending program might be 73.5 square meters.
At a meeting between the city’s government, the central bank governor, Nguyen Van Binh, and related agencies last Friday, the proposal was considered as this is a special case that benefits homebuyers, according to Chau.
This is one of 13 issues petitioned by HoREA in order to carry out more effectively the Government’s Resolution 02 on handling inventories, removing difficulties for businesses, boosting business and production and tackling bad debt.
To simplify the case, HoREA suggested the city issue a list of areas that are disallowed to convert commercial housing projects into low-cost homes or divide apartments into smaller units such as the central city area. Projects out of these areas might be converted into low-cost homes or divided into smaller condos and companies will have their own orientation to adjust the development of housing schemes in a suitable way, HoREA explained.
The association urged the city to soon consider dealing with commercial housing schemes seeking approval for being converted into budget homes and those for restructuring their small- and medium-d condos to support enterprises in the context of current tough business conditions.
The meeting in principle agreed to lower the balance capital ratio to 10% instead of the current level of 20% to make it more suitable with the financial capability of homebuyers, meaning homebuyers applying for loans from the VND30-trillion dong package can take loans worth up to 90% of the apartment’s value, Chau added.
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