An estimated four million homeless people in various parts of Thailand will be provided homes to stay in years to come, said Premier Prayut Chan-o-cha on Tuesday.

According to the premier, the homeless include those who may currently live without home census or legal permission in slums or seedy shacks built in encroached, polluted canals in the capital's densely-populated areas and the provinces in addition to those who lack any lodging at all.

The homeless will be provided low-cost apartment houses by the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security, he said.

Apartment units will be built especially for the homeless who may buy them on installment basis, he said.

They might be built on parcels of land owned by government agencies, besides other property which the ministry is yet to procure for the homeless.

Though as many as four millions have been reported as homeless among the country's population of 65 millions, the ministry had merely managed to build some 13,000 apartment units for them since the last few years.

"It might probably take five to 10 years from now for all the homeless to have homes of their own," he commented.