Hanoi super suburb launches next phase

As many as 18,000 residents could be headed to the new suburb of Ciputra International City

The second phase is projected to complete in 2010. Its total area covers 148 hectares, 69 of which are set aside for housing. Gardens and public facilities will fill the rest of the space.
Phase one of the satellite city, which is 7.5 kilometres from the centre of Hanoi on the lake’s northern bank, started in September 2001 and is expected to complete next year.
Of six residential buildings in phase one with a total investment capital of $42 million, two have already got underway.
The first two 20-storey buildings provide 316 apartments, which will house about 1,200 people. The four other buildings will be 17 storeys high and provide 864 apartments, averaging 150 square metres in floor area each. In addition, about 700 villages and semi-detached houses will also be finished and decorated.
“In the five years following the end of the second phase, the company plans to build 50 multi-storey buildings, which will provide 10,000 apartments, as well as hospitals, schools, retail and entertainment centres, and office buildings,” said Budiarsa Sastrawinata, the general director of Indonesia’s Ciputra Group, the project’s foreign partner.
Budiarsa said the United Nations International School would open next month.
“This will be the biggest international school in Vietnam. It will be able to accept more than 1,600 pupils.”
Ciputra holds a 70 per cent stake in the joint venture development, which was licensed in 1996, and the remainder is held by Hanoi Investment and Infrastructure Development Company.
The director of Hanoi’s Architecture and Planning Department, Dao Ngoc Nghiem, said the Ciputra complex was the biggest-ever housing project approved by city authorities.
“On average, each inhabitant in other housing projects has a living space of five square metres but the Ciputra complex will provide an average of 54sqm.”
“Thirty-six hectares of the city will be reserved for trees and lakes, and about 3ha will be set aside for growing peach trees – famous in the nearby villages of Nhat Tan and Phu Thuong.”
The Ciputra International City is one of four foreign-backed residential developments in Hanoi. Of the the other three, North Thang Long, the International Exchange City and Red River City, all are licensed housing projects, but work has yet to start on any of them.
Ciputra specialises in technical infrastructure and property development in Indonesia. The company also developed Hanoi’s Horison hotel.
Over the last 40 years, it has developed 14 satellite cities, ranging in size from 450 to 6,000ha and including office buildings, theme parks and golf courses in Indonesia and overseas.