Work started last Saturday on a residential and commercial complex, the Royal City, in Hanoi with a total investment capital of nearly VND10 trillion (US$541.4 million). Covering an area of 120,945 square meters at 74, Nguyen Trai Street, Thanh Xuan District, the complex includes luxury hotels, office for rent, trade centers, high-end apartment buildings, schools, parks and underground parking area of 300,000 square meters.

A large area of the project will also be dedicated to parks and multi-purpose public space.

Upon its completion in 2012, the complex would become a high-end urban zone to meet the increasing demand for accommodation and services by local people and expats in Hanoi, Le Khac Hiep, chairman of real estate developer Vincom Joint Stock Company, told Vietnam News Agency.

The Hanoi-based Vincom, Vietnam’s second-largest listed property developer, is the major investor of the Royal City, accounting for 51 percent of the project’s total investment capital.

The total housing area in Vietnam last year reached nearly 1.569 billion square meters, up 53.7 percent from 2008, a conference heard in the capital city on Monday.

According to a recent report of the Ministry of Construction, the average living space per person in 2009 amounted to 18.6 square meters, an increase of 55 percent from the previous year, Doanh Nhan Sai Gon Online (Saigon Businessmen Online) newspaper reported.

About 29.6 percent of the country’s population lived in urban areas last year compared to 23.7 percent in 1999.

During the 1999-2009 period, the number of city dwellers achieved an average annual growth of 3.4 percent compared to 0.4 percent a year of rural residents.

The country’s southeastern region, including Ho Chi Minh City, last year recorded the highest rate of urbanization with 57.1 percent of the locals living in the cities, up 3.6 point percent from 1999.

The ministry has set a target of achieving an average living space of 19 square meters per person this year.

Compiled by Hong Nguyen