Thien Phat worker accommodation area is located in Linh Trung II Export Processing Zone (Binh Chieu ward, Thu Duc city) with nearly 400 apartments.

Ms. Kim Loan, a worker at Long Rich Vietnam Company (Linh Trung II Export Processing Zone, Thu Duc City) plays with her children in the apartment of Thien Phat Accommodation Area.

Mr. Nguyen Van Loi, General Director of Thien Phat Tourism Services Production Construction Investment Joint Stock Company, said that after nearly 7 years of operation, the accommodation area is always full.

According to Mr. Loi, the need for workers to rent long-term housing is very large.

`We also want to build a new one and do it right away, but it’s not easy to do it,` Mr. Loi said, citing the opposite of this accommodation area as a 500-unit project with a land lease term of 50 years, starting in 2008.

According to the General Director of Thien Phat Company, the policy of building housing for workers has been around for a long time, but in recent times the city has not implemented it drastically.

Similarly, Mr. Le Huu Nghia, Director of Le Thanh Trading Construction Company Limited – an enterprise that has provided about 7,000 apartments to the market for low-income people, said that the biggest barrier today is procedures.

Le Thanh Apartment in Binh Tan District is for workers and low-income workers.

Dr. Tran Hoang Ngan, Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Institute for Development Research, said that the installment payment period for buying social housing has been increased to 25 years, and the monthly payment is also smaller than the 10-15 year regulation.

Therefore, according to Mr. Ngan, the state needs to spend part of the public investment source of 2.87 million billion VND focused on the private sector, which means supporting businesses to restore production and business and build dormitories.

Data from the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Construction shows that the city currently has more than 99,000 apartments for rent with more than 723,000 rooms, and the number of tenants is nearly 1.7 million people, including 886,000 workers.

Mr. Pham Chi Tam, Vice President of the Ho Chi Minh City Labor Federation, said that currently 90% of out-of-province workers are living in boarding houses invested by people.

In fact, since 2011, the city has launched a program for households and individuals to borrow capital to build or repair motels for workers to rent.

Thien Phat workers’ accommodation is located in Linh Trung II Export Processing Zone (Thu Duc City).

To speed up the progress of housing development for workers, Deputy Director of Ho Chi Minh City Department of Construction Huynh Thanh Khiet said that in the near future, the city will use vacant land funds in industrial parks and export processing zones to build accommodation for workers.

In the next step, the city will review all remaining state land funds and change their use purposes to invite investors.

According to a survey by the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Construction, workers can only spend 15-20% of their monthly income, equivalent to 1.5-2 million VND, to pay for housing.

`The Department of Construction will propose this issue to the City People’s Committee, then report to the Central Government to have an overall policy to effectively develop social housing, making it easier for workers to access,` Mr. Khiet said.

Chairman of the City People’s Committee Phan Van Mai said that if there are good policies, in the next few months, Ho Chi Minh City can renovate hundreds, even hundreds of thousands of boarding houses so that workers can immediately improve their accommodation.