The transition of unsold properties to social housing projects will be put into consideration, said a senior state official.

The move will partially relief the current pressure on the local property market, said Minister of Construction Trinh Dinh Dung in a recent meeting with the Ho Chi Minh City Real Estate Association.

The ministry will launch an overall examination on approved housing projects in HCMC to get a deep understanding of the current situation.

It will know which ones have its compensation and site clearance stages completed, which ones are in progress and which ones have yet finished any stages.

Those in a last case will have to stop their projects, Dung added.

Dung said that the transition of normal housing projects with large floor areas to social housing ones with smaller floor areas to meet the needs of low-income people who cannot afford the market price is a feasible solution to remove the difficulties for the current real estate market.

"House prices should go down at a rate which can still bring an acceptable rate of profits for developers, while they could also be affordable to the people,” Dung said.

More importantly, the quality conditions of those housing projects must be good enough to ensure minimum living spaces for the people living in.

“The Ministry of Construction is working on many proposals for suitable scales of floor areas that can meet the affordability of house buyers, "Dung said.

Statistics show that Ho Chi Minh City has about 20,000 unsold apartments, he added.

The ministry and HCMC government have also clinched a deal for a joint action program to implement the housing development strategy in 2020 with a vision to 2030.

The priority of the program is to address housing issue for the low-income people, he said.

The construction ministry will propose to the Government for direct financial support to house buyers by offering them soft loans with long repayment periods.

The program will also spare supports for a type of housing built by the individuals for leasing purposes.

Those projects will be exempted from land use fee, tax and receive lending if meeting some provisions in planning, building quality, and rent rates.

The type of home will account for 70 percent of urban housing, as most students and workers are currently living in such accommodations which have failed to meet the specified conditions.

Le Hoang Quan, Chairman of the HCMC People's Committee, said about 50 percent of the 2 million households in the city are living in such substandard houses.

So, the joint action program will have a huge impact on the city once implemented, he added.

A strategic housing objective in the period 2012-2015 of Ho Chi Minh City is striving to build a minimum of 2.7 million m2 of social housing to meet the accommodation for 100,000 students, 17,500 apartments for low- incomers and 93,000 proper shelters for workers.

Moreover, there are plans to knock 25 old condos down for the construction of 6,500 new apartments for relocation.

Businesses joining those social housing projects will be exempt from land use fees for the projects which have been turned into social housing.