Access to the station determines advantages and real estate prices
According to the Vietnam Real Estate Market Research & Evaluation Institute (VARS IRE), in the context of Vietnam promoting the development of urban railways, high-speed railways and the TOD model, the view of "expensive" and "cheap" for real estate needs to be redefined. The value of a house is not only in the amount of money to pay to own it, but also in the total cost and time it takes to maintain life there.
Hanoi is oriented to develop a urban railway network with a scale of about 18 lines, nearly 979 km long, along with a system of centers and TOD points at many levels. In which, in addition to the Cat Linh - Ha Dong line that has been operational, Nhon - Hanoi Station is expected to operate the entire line from December 2027, Hanoi has just started construction of 5 more metro lines with a total length of more than 300 km, expected to be basically completed by 2030.
In Ho Chi Minh City and the expanded area, the metro network is also oriented to develop with about 28 lines, total length of about 1,100 km. In which, line No. 1 (Ben Thanh - Suoi Tien) has been put into operation; line No. 2 (Ben Thanh - Tham Luong) has started construction and is expected to be completed after 5 years. In addition, 4 metro projects with a total length of about 138.8 km are planned to start construction from now until the end of 2026.
Notably, high-speed railway infrastructure in Vietnam has also been officially activated with 2 lines Hanoi - Quang Ninh (120 km) and Ben Thanh - Can Gio, (54 km) expected to operate from the end of 2028. These are also two projects that put Vietnam into the group of few countries with 350 km/h high-speed railways, creating a revolutionary change in travel time.
When the metro is integrated with urban planning, the value of real estate is increasingly associated with accessibility instead of just geographical distance. However, not just being close to the metro is naturally beneficial from TOD. A project 500m away from the station on the map but lacking sidewalks, difficult to cross the street, poor connection with buses or other destinations does not necessarily create commensurate value. TOD is not simply building houses next to the metro but creating convenient connections between residence and workplace, schools, commerce and essential services.
Satellite housing goodly connected to the metro enjoys many benefits
According to VARS IRE, assuming a household saves 4 million VND per month on fuel, parking, maintenance and related expenses, the savings are equivalent to 480 million VND after 10 years and 960 million VND after 20 years. This is only the cost that can be quantified in money, not including the value of the time saved when reducing daily travel time.
For households that have to travel far to go to work, pick up and drop off children or access essential services, time on the road is also a form of "opportunity cost", because that is time that cannot be spent on work, family or rest.
Therefore, for first-time homebuyers or those with limited budgets, suburban areas, satellite areas with lower prices than the center but good connections to the metro can become a worthwhile option to consider. Buyers can both reduce house price pressure and have more opportunities to reduce travel costs when the public transport system operates effectively. However, this advantage is only truly meaningful when the metro is deployed on schedule, conveniently connected and suitable for the family's actual travel journey.
VARS IRE believes that the metro can change the value of real estate, but not every project in the plan has the same benefit level. The distance to the station, actual access, bus connection, occupancy density and surrounding services, urban space quality and convenience of daily travel all determine the level of benefit.
Therefore, buyers should not only look at information "near metro", "up ahead of TOD" or expect prices to increase when infrastructure is completed, because there is still a large gap between a project that actually benefits from infrastructure and a project that is only within market expectations. Especially, for metro lines that are not yet completed or are newly in the planning phase, buyers need to be even more cautious about adding the future value of infrastructure to the current real estate price in advance.
