Gov’t helps struggling realtors

The Government has allowed debt extension and restructuring for struggling real estate enterprises in an effort to revive the gloomy real estate market.

According to its Resolution 33 on sustainable and healthy development of the real estate market issued last week, cash-strapped real estate enterprises will be considered for extending debt and interest payment and restructuring debts. Favorable conditions will be created for lending to projects which meet the actual demand of consumers and have good efficiency and liquidity, such as social housing, old condo renovation, office for rent and real estate to serve production, industrial operations and tourism. Credit access will be easier for projects which have full legal status, marketability and debt payment guarantee, with priority for social housing, houses for workers and real estate for production activities and social welfare.

To remove difficulties for the real estate market, the Government has asked the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) to direct commercial banks to review and classify real estate projects to have appropriate measure for debt extension and restructuring. It has also assigned the SBV to deploy the VND120-trillion credit package for developers and buyers of social homes and houses for workers and contractors for old condo renovation. The credit package, financed by the four State-owned commercial banks (Agribank, BIDV, Vietcombank and VietinBank), offers a lending rate which is 1.5-2% lower than the average rate of the four banks.

The VND120 trillion credit package is equal to 12% of capital demand for the program to build one million homes for the poor and workers in 2021-2030.