The Treasury Department plans to allocate 1,000 rai of state land in Samut Prakan to construct residential projects for low-income earners to rent at affordable prices.
Director-general Yuthana Yimkarun said the department is revving up efforts to create criteria for eligible tenants and requirements to curb rights subrogation and re-renting. Exact details will likely be released next month before they are forwarded to the Finance Ministry for consideration and later cabinet for approval.
Deputy Finance Minister Santi Promphat said he has assigned the Treasury Department to help speed up the development of state land nationwide for residential projects and arable land to allow low-income earners to own homes as well as have a career.
Moreover, he said these housing developments will enable the Treasury Department to generate income.
"The Treasury Department now manages a vast land plot which could be developed for rental housing projects at affordable prices. Once people have their own residence and arable land to grow crops on, they will have a better quality of life," he said. "However, the department needs to come up with criteria for eligible tenants as well as details of state land that will be used for this project."
The department currently manages 12.5 million rai of state land and 400,000 rai is rented. Of this, 80% is used for farming and residential purposes while the remaining 20% is for commercial use.
Referring to a surge in the country's household debt, Mr Santi said household debt must be classified into two parts: good or useful debt incurred to create revenue such as the purchase of pickup trucks to be used for business and bad debt which involves borrowing money to purchase rapidly depreciating assets or for the purpose of consumption.
Mr Santi said more than 50% of household debt currently is classified as good or useful debt.
Meanwhile, the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce (UTCC) on Tuesday reported that average household debt for Thai workers saw a historic surge of almost 30% and reached almost 205,000 baht in 2021 driven by the pandemic.
In 2019, the average household debt was 158,855 baht, up 15.1% year-on-year.