Hundreds queue to buy social housing in Hanoi

At a building in Hanoi’s Cau Giay District on Wednesday evening, many queued up outside to register to buy an apartment at NHS Trung Van, a new social housing project that has been available since the end of March.

The project is being built on a 2,700-square-meter area in Nam Tu Liem. When completed it will have 32 floors and two underground levels, with 275 apartments, in which 225 are social housing units

The developer of the project, NHS, has received over 1,000 registrations since March 28. It had been accepting only 40 registrations each day, with the figure rising to 70 in the last few days due to high demand.

A NHS employee calls out the names of the people who register once every three hours to check if anyone has left. If someone does not respond after three calls they are removed from the list.

Some people came to register after finishing their work day. Lien in Hoang Mai District said: “I have been coming here every day for the last four days. Some days I was not quick enough to be in the queue and had to leave.”

A social housing apartment is legally required to only be sold to those on low incomes, though there have been reports of the middle-classes buying them.

At NHS Trung Van, apartments are sold from VND19.5 million ($831) per square meter, substantially lower than an average project in Hanoi. The smallest apartment is priced at VND1.39 billion (nearly US$60,000).