The level of convenience of mobility in a city is evaluated with three criteria. The first one is the availability, density and level of investment in shared transport services (car, motorbike and bicycle sharing program). The second one is the size and level of innovation in the city’s electric train system; and the last one three are the quality of urban infrastructure (urban model, bicycle network, traffic congestion and air pollution).
Traffic jam at rush hours in Hanoi.
According to Ms. Do Thi Thu Hang, Deputy Director, Head of Savills Research Department at Savills Hanoi, Vietnam is lacking two of the three criteria mentioned above, which are shared transport service and electric train system. Regarding the last criterion, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City still have many things that can be improved. Currently, the two major cities spend less than 9% of their urban area for transportation, lower than other Asian cities such as Shanghai, Seoul, Singapore and Tokyo, where the rate is over 12%.
Mr. Bui Trung Kien, Deputy Director, Head of Commercial Leasing at Savills Hanoi said, in Vietnam, because of the low level of convenience in mobility in cities, so corporate tenants are looking for other offices in the better connected areas. Previously, the central area of Hanoi used to be a top priority for tenants. However, due to the increasing traffic volume making it difficult to transport, as well as rising rents, the tenants have gradually moved to non-CBD areas.
In fact, Hanoi's metro system project currently prioritizes stations in the sub-central and Western part of the city, thus creating the connection advantage for office buildings in these areas. The two districts of Ba Dinh, Dong Da see the largest number of office workers (763,000 people), followed by the Western districts with 420,000 people. Average occupancy rate of offices at the Western districts hit 93%.
