HÀ NỘI — Hà Nội is allowing residents who already own their homes to buy or lease-to-purchase social housing apartments if their current residence is more than 20 kilometres from their workplace.

Decision 51/2026/QĐ-UBND by the municipal People’s Committee has set out conditions under which homeowners may access social housing.

Specifically, applicants' current homes must be located at least 20 kilometres from their place of work. The distance is calculated based on the shortest road route using Google Maps in driving mode at the time of application review.

A key requirement is that the distance from the social housing project to the applicant’s workplace must be less than two-thirds of the distance from their current home to their workplace.

Applicants must also meet existing eligibility criteria on income and beneficiary status, and must not have previously purchased or leased social housing.

The decision also clarifies how workplaces are determined.

For employees under labour contracts or official appointments, the workplace is defined by the address stated in employment documents.

For mobile workers, it is based on the official base of their companies.

Meanwhile, for freelance workers, the workplace is identified as the location of their regular business. — VNS