The ‘golden land’ fund along the Red River in Hanoi

Just a few steps from Tran Nhat Duat Street (Hoan Kiem District, Hanoi) are shacks, abandoned lawns, or small crop fields in the middle of the Red River. This road is the dyke of the Red River in Hoan Kiem district.

But on this side of the road is another world. It is the hustle and bustle of Hanoi’s central district, where old townhouses are for sale for several hundred million per square meter, even billions. The land fund in the old town is almost gone, making it difficult to develop urban space.

The land bank along the Red River has long been targeted by the government and many businesses to expand space for Hanoi. According to calculations, the section of the Red River flowing through Hanoi is about 40 km long, especially the section from where the Hong Ha Bridge is planned to be built to Thanh Tri Bridge, with an area of ​​about 11,000 hectares, twice the area of ​​Hoan Kiem district.

The problem of using this “golden land” fund reasonably, adding value and harmonizing interests is what Hanoi is looking for a solution to.

Large land fund

Historically, the dyke crossing Hanoi has broken many times in the flood season, in some years the water level exceeded 11 m. This shows that flood water is the main reason why it is difficult for the land fund outside the 2 dike on the banks of the Red River to develop urban areas.

10 years ago, when Son La Hydroelectricity was inaugurated, along with other hydropower plants such as Hoa Binh, Lai Chau, Ban Chat, Huoi Quang… helped to retain tens of billions of m3 of water in each flood season. Since then, flood water in the Red River is no longer a big problem for Hanoi, the post in the middle of the Red River has not been flooded for many years, even in the middle of the flood season.

Realizing this, since the 2000s, Hanoi has started to promote the planning of two banks of the Red River with a large land fund.

According to calculations, in the land fund of 11,000 ha targeted in the planning, the river surface area is 3,600 ha (33%), riverbank land is over 5,400 ha (50%), the rest area is built area. construction includes villages with a long history of formation and development such as Bat Trang, Van Khe, and Trang Viet communes; neighborhoods outside the dyke such as Quang An, Tu Lien, Yen Phu, Phuc Xa…

In addition, there is land for social infrastructure works (public, schools), technical infrastructure works, land for national defense and security, industry (warehouses, ports).

About 800,000 people living in the Red River dike area are lacking in physical conditions, infrastructure, and degraded houses because of waiting for planning. Photo: Thach Thao.

Currently, the area on both sides of the river has sprouted many spontaneous and illegal constructions, encroaching on the riverbed, obstructing the flow, forming some messy, unplanned areas, temporary houses, collapsed saggy…

At the beginning of 2017, Hanoi City made a master plan on urban zoning of the Red River, at the rate of 1/5000 of the section from Hong Ha Bridge to the place where Me So Bridge is planned to be built (belonging to the 4th Ring Road). By early 2021, the project was agreed on the policy.

However, the project has not yet been commented on by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development on the issue of flood drainage. Some hydrologists believe that there is still a probability of floods in the Red River in the future.

“Golden land” near the center

The section of the Red River that flows to the center of Hanoi almost goes in the north – south direction, through a series of central districts such as Tay Ho, Hoan Kiem, Hai Ba Trung, Long Bien… These are all districts with high land prices. The most expensive in Hanoi.

Currently, land prices in Tay Ho and Hai Ba Trung districts range from 200-300 million VND/m2, if the location is good and convenient for traffic, the land price can reach 500-600 million VND/m2. In Long Bien and Hoang Mai districts, the common land price ranges from 150-200 million VND/m2.

Particularly in Hoan Kiem district, the old quarter areas have seen transactions ranging from 500 million to 1 billion per m2. However, transactions are very meager because of limited land fund.

Apartments along the Red River dike on Tran Nhat Duat, Nguyen Khoai and Nghi Tam streets are also very expensive. For example, the apartment project Aqua Central 44 Yen Phu (Hoan Kiem district) costs about 80-90 million VND/m2; Sun Grand City Ancora Residence project (Luong Yen, Hai Ba Trung district) costs about 80-85 million VND/m2; Apartment in Times City (Hai Ba Trung district) costs about 50-60 million VND/m2…

A land fund of up to tens of thousands of square meters along the two banks of the Red River can be used by the city to develop infrastructure, transport, housing, tourism… Photo: Hoang Ha.

On the left bank of the Red River in Long Bien and Gia Lam districts, land prices have also increased rapidly in recent years. In Long Bien, there are villas trading in the range of 60-100 billion VNDthe area is about 150-200 m2, the house is completed.

In Gia Lam, apartments have also been sold for about 40-50 million VND/m2, villas are traded about 40-50 billion VND, even reaching the milestone. 100 billion VND.

Land price survey in Dong Du area (Gia Lam district) has also continuously increased over the years. Currently, the price has increased to 44-52 million VND/m2, depending on the location, while the end of 2021 will be at 35-40 million VND/m2.

In the area of ​​Long Bien district on Thach Cau street, the land price increased to 85 million VND/m2 for a piece of land with a frontage of 3.7 m. Meanwhile, in Bac Cau street, the land facing the Red River, the land price ranges from 35-53 million VND/m2.

Mr. Nguyen Van Dinh, Chairman of the Vietnam Real Estate Brokers Association, said that if properly developed, the land fund along the two banks of the Red River will help open a new development space for Hanoi. On the other hand, with a special location, convenient for traffic and landscape, this land fund can create great value for Hanoi real estate market.

Harmonizing the benefits of exploiting the ‘golden land’ fund

With with ZingMr. Tran Ngoc Chinh, Chairman of the Vietnam Urban Development Planning Association, former Deputy Minister of Construction and Development on both sides of the Red River will completely solve the pressing problems of the people and create a premise to build build a space axis of green landscape, eco-urban at 40 km on 2 riverbanks.

“If the city can create a reasonable mechanism, this will be a gold mine for Hanoi to exploit and develop,” he said.

However, Mr. Chinh emphasized that the most difficult thing at present, no investor dares to enter because this is an area to escape floods. In fact, the issue of flood drainage still has to wait for the opinion of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

He cited world experience, there have been many countries that have successfully built urban areas on both sides of the river such as Venice (Italy) with the Grand Canal running through to form a waterway transport corridor passing through most tourist destinations. main calendar in the city. Or Paris (France) has the Seine river flowing through with two banks of the river a series of works such as Notre Dame Cathedral, Eiffel Tower, Louvre museum, Tuileries garden…

Mr. Nguyen Van Dinh emphasized that the land fund on the two banks of the Red River is very large, so it needs to be planned and developed in a methodical and reasonable way. The selection of investors also needs to be carefully and fairly selected, helping to harmonize the interests of the State – investors – people, avoiding wasting the “golden land” fund.

Experiences and lessons in developing land bank along the Saigon River and Thu Thiem peninsula can be something that Hanoi can refer to.

(According to Zing)