Workers struggle to apply to buy social housing in Ho Chi Minh City

The northern area of Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Binh Duong province) has a large concentration of illegal workers. Tens of thousands of people are looking to buy social housing. However, the number of projects being implemented and completed is very small compared to actual demand.

According to the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee, in 2025, Ho Chi Minh City has approved investment policies for 17 social housing projects with a construction scale of nearly 14,000 apartments. Since the beginning of the year, only 4 projects have been completed with a scale of 2,639 apartments.

Currently, most social housing projects are being implemented in the Binh Duong area and only a few projects are eligible to sell future housing. Reporters from Lao Dong Newspaper have recorded the actual situation of workers applying to buy a Thang Long social housing apartment (Hoa Loi ward, Ho Chi Minh City).

Here, we met Mr. Le Dong (born in 1982, living in Ho Chi Minh City) who was coming to the project to ask about the results of the documents. The distributor said that Mr. Le Dong's application had been submitted to the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Construction since October 2025 but had not yet been approved.

Mr. Le Dong shared that it also takes a lot of time to complete the documents. "I had to take a break from work to work on documents. The most difficult thing is when applying for an income confirmation certificate. Initially, it was submitted to the locality as incorrect, so it was not confirmed. The reason is that I am a freelancer, the state authorities do not know how much I earn to confirm. Fortunately, the brokerage unit has provided guidance to complete the documents" - Mr. Dong shared.

Meanwhile, workers working in factories also face many difficulties when completing documents to buy social housing. Ms. Hoang Thi Yen Thanh - Representative of Tam Thai Land Company (distributor of the Thang Long social housing project) said that she is supporting and guiding the family of Mr. Ha Van Lan (31 years old, from Ca Mau) and his wife, Duong Thi Hong Ngan (born in 1992, formerly from Hau Giang).

According to Mr. Lan, he and his wife have been living in Binh Duong as workers and have lived there for 6 years, and have bought a 30 m2 apartment in Binh Duong ward. After moving her ² children and her elderly mother to live, the apartment became too small. Up to now, his family wants to buy a larger social housing apartment. However, the application for half a month has not been completed.

According to Mr. Lan, the company needed to request an income confirmation certificate, but at first the wife's company refused to confirm. The company said that if necessary, it would take a labor contract or issue an income statement to the bank, but the company did not issue an income confirmation certificate. After many explanations and having to ask the grassroots union for more information, the company issued this certificate.

Next, Mr. Lan needs to request a certificate of form 03 "the subject has a house but the area <15 m2/person". The documents were returned by the ward with the reason that Mr. Lan was a worker, and the form 03 was a paper for the People's Armed Forces, and ^another model had to be reissued for the correct subject.

"When I returned to the brokerage company, this unit told me that model 03 was used by all subjects, including workers with houses but the area < 15 m2/person. I plan to continue to take a day off work on the 7th to go to the ward to submit my application. I find it very difficult to apply for social housing. The most difficult thing is to ask for leave from work to submit documents, but have to travel ^many times" - Mr. Lan shared.

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