NA deputies discussed solutions to resolve the high level of unused housing stock on October 16.

Half of all outstanding debts are in real estate

The NA deputies agreed that the most important task now was to ease economic difficulties and boost spending, closely followed by taming bad debts.

National Assembly Vice Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan reminded everyone of the biggest problem, "We have to take in the high levels real estate stock and abandoned or suspended projects."

However, statistics about the real number of houses available were not supplied. "I'm not sure if we've ever collected such data. The reports from General Statistic Office of Vietnam also don't have such a section but the levels of unused housing must be high." minister of Planning and Investment Bui Quang Vinh said.

Nguyen Sinh Hung Chairman of the National Assembly said the banks were holding VND2,000 trillion (USD96 billion) in outstanding debts with half of that money being in the form of mortgages and bad debts from failed real estate speculation.

Vinh said as of September 1, the inventories of the manufacturing and processing industry sector stood at 20.4% of the total sales volume, while plastics stood at 52.6%, cement 52%, textiles 39%, and cars and motorbikes 37%. However, some inventory levels had gone down such as footwear at 13.7% and medicine 10%.