On 22/3, Hanoi City Police announced that the Cyber Security and High-Tech Crime Prevention and Control Department had fined two individuals in Hanoi 7,5 million dong each. The fines were for providing and sharing fake, false, distorted, slanderous, or reputation-damaging information about agencies, organizations, or individuals, as per Point a, Clause 1, Article 101 of Decree 15/2020.

Previously, through monitoring cyberspace, police discovered several Facebook accounts posting articles about transferring and selling "diplomatic, internal, or early purchase quotas" for apartments in social housing projects. Upon verification, the developers of these social housing projects confirmed they had not advertised or transferred units early.

The developers also stated they had not entered into any civil transaction contracts, authorizations, or trusts for the sale or transfer of project apartments to individuals or business organizations. Therefore, the actions of some individuals posting on Facebook to sell and assert these early purchase or diplomatic quotas were false.

Following this incident, police advised that when researching social housing, people should not trust advertisements selling "internal quotas," "guaranteed application processing," or "guaranteed social housing approval." Individuals should not transfer deposit money or reservation fees to unclear individuals or organizations. Information regarding social housing should be sought from official authorities or the legitimate developers.

False information posted on Facebook. Photo: Police provided

Recently, a series of violations related to social housing sales and application processing have occurred. Most recently, the Economic Security Department of the Ministry of Public Security initiated a case of "fraudulent appropriation of property" at several social housing projects in Hanoi. Suspects in this case appropriated over 40 billion dong.

According to the 2023 Housing Law, social housing is a type of housing supported by the State for eligible beneficiaries. The goal is to provide affordable housing for priority groups. Compared to commercial housing in the same segment and area, social housing has a lower price, must be sold to the correct beneficiaries, and can only be transferred five years after handover.

Eligible groups include: people with meritorious services to the revolution, relatives of martyrs; poor and near-poor households in rural areas; households affected by natural disasters; low-income individuals, poor, and near-poor households in urban areas.

According to the Ministry of Construction, the country is implementing 737 social housing projects with a scale of over 701.000 units, equivalent to about 70% of the one million unit development plan. In February alone, localities started an additional 28 projects with approximately 20.000 apartments.