HCM City (VNA) - Housing development isof paramount importance to Ho Chi Minh City as꧂ the city’s population is expected to see an increase of one million people every five years inthe 2021-35 period, according to Vo Van Hoan, vice chairman of the city People’s Committee.

Speaking on the sidelines of a conference on housing solutions held on September 17 in HCM City, Hoan said that housing development should correspond witheconomic growth and transport infrastructure development in the southerneconomic zone and southwestern and eastern regions. “More attention should be paid to low-income people,” he said, adding thatmany commercially housing projects have been carried out. "The city needs more apartment buildings with parks and entertainmentareas that are important for residents’ life," he said. “Housing quality should be high for low-income people also,” Hoan said. City authorities plan to call on the private sector to invest in low-incomehousing, according to Hoan. The committee is also working with the city’s Department of Construction toreview and amend policies to create favourable conditions for enterprises toinvest in such housing and for residents to be able to buy them. The city has 1.9 million units of housing (including apartments) covering182 million square metres. Within the 2016-2020 period, the city aims to build an additional 40million sq m of floor space, raising the average housing area per person to19.8 sq m by 2020 from 17.32 sq m per person in 2015. As of June, the average housing area per person was 19.9 square metres. Commercial housing projects, social housing, and buildings for workers anddormitories for students are all part of the city’s housing stock. The department forecasts that the city will need 45 million square metresof floor space between 2021 and 2025. Le Hoang Chau, chairman of the HCM City Real Estate Association, said: “The city’sbiggest and most difficult problem is to solve housing needs for a large numberof low-income and middle-income people, including state officials, students,workers, and migrants, to ensure social welfare and sustainable development.” The city has nearly 476,000 households who do not own their own homes andlive with relatives, accounting for 25 percent of its total. Of the 476,000households, more than 20,000 live on and near canals and 35,000 in oldapartment buildings that need to be improved. Yap Kioe Sheng of the Asian Institute of Technology in Thailand said thatcities in developing countries are growing rapidly as aresult of natural growth due to relatively young populations and of rural-urbanmigration triggered by urban economic growth and rise of economic opportunitiesin cities. “The challenge for those cities is to see that the growing population isadequately housed,” Sheng said. An urban housing policy needs to deal with the housing demand of both thelocal population, particularly low- and middle-income, and migrants, and thedemand for both homeownership and rental housing, according to Sheng./.