Hanoi outlet planning and the logistics challenge

Outlets are about to become a new type of commercial development in Vietnam. In late September 2026, the press reported that the Ministry of Industry and Trade approved a scheme to develop the outlet model to 2030, with a vision to 2045. Earlier, the proposed 100-year master plan for the Capital, on public display since early July, had reserved sites for seven outlet centers at Hanoi's gateways.

The investor's first question is usually where to put it and how large it should be. From an infrastructure consultant's perspective, an outlet is first of all a logistics problem: goods from dozens of brands arrive, turn over and are returned continuously, while customers surge in on weekends.

Seven outlet sites on the Hanoi master plan map

According to the commercial planning diagram in the master plan proposal, the seven sites are: Dương Xá (Gia Lâm), Đông Xuân (Sóc Sơn), Chúc Sơn (Chương Mỹ), Thạch Hòa (Thạch Thất), the Phú Xuyên satellite city, Hiệp Thuận and Phụng Thượng (Phúc Thọ), and Đường Lâm (Sơn Tây). The West has four sites; the East, North and South have one each. Place names follow the planning drawing; some administrative units have since been reorganized.

What they have in common is that none is in the inner city. Outlets are placed at the gateways, where land is plentiful and which lie on inter-regional transport corridors. In July 2026, Hanoi had sought investors for two outlet sites: the site in Yên Xuân commune covers about 230 ha, with planned capital of about VND 2,500 billion and completion targeted for 2030; and the site in Phúc Thịnh commune covers over 22 ha.

National scheme: three models, three size ranges

Theo the scheme as reported by Báo Đầu tư, outlets are divided into three models. Premium outlet villages have a leasable area of about 30,000 to 50,000 m² and are located near major cities, tourist destinations or transport hubs. Urban and peri-urban outlet centers have 5,000 to 25,000 m² and sell mass-market and mid-range goods. Integrated outlets sit within mixed-use complexes, at about 15,000 to 50,000 m².

Hanoi is among five localities encouraged to run pilots, along with Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang, Quang Ninh and An Giang (Phu Quoc). The scheme aims for at least one pilot model before 2030, and requires goods of Vietnamese origin to account for at least 30 to 40%.

The figure to read carefully is leasable area. The project's land area is much larger, because it also includes parking, internal roads, utility zones and back-of-house warehousing. Misjudging the ratio between these two figures is a common reason why a site that looks big enough on paper turns out cramped once the layout is drawn.

An outlet is a logistics problem before it is a retail problem

Conventional shopping centers receive new goods by season. Outlets receive overstock, end-of-season and discontinued items from many brands: deliveries are irregular, come in many small lots, and must turn over quickly to maintain the discounts. Three components often left out of the drawings are the receiving area and rear transfer warehouse, kept separate from customer flow; space for delivery trucks to wait and turn around without taking over customer parking; and infrastructure for imported goods, if the project plans to sell international brands.

The customer side is different too. Outlets at the gateways depend almost entirely on cars and tour vehicles, with visitors concentrated on weekends and holidays. Parking, turning lanes off the main road and coach stops must be sized for weekend peak hours, not the daily average. The way to check is to simulate vehicle flows for the most crowded day.

Outlets next to dry ports: the advantages and what must be kept separate

The commercial planning diagram also targets putting two dry ports into operation: ICD Cổ Bi and ICD Đức Thượng. Placing an outlet near a dry port has advantages: imported goods can be cleared near the point of sale, warehouses and technical infrastructure can be shared, and container-truck peaks and shopper peaks may fall at different times. That last point must be measured with real data for each location, not assumed.

The advantage holds only if the two flows are fully separated on the site plan: container trucks and passenger vehicles do not share gates or turning lanes; any area under customs supervision is kept apart from the retail area; and customer walkways do not cut across the operating yard. CGD is currently designing The ILS Outlet Center in Hoài Đức, which is part of a cluster with the ICD Mỹ Đình dry port in Đức Thượng on which CGD is also acting as consultant.

What outlet investors should fix before hiring a designer

Four inputs: the intended outlet model and target leasable area; the planned brand list and share of imported goods; assumptions for weekend visitor numbers and arriving vehicles; and the supply method, whether receiving directly from brands or via a transfer warehouse. Only with all four does a site layout have a sound basis.

You can run a preliminary check of the site with the site screening tool and preview the procedural steps in the permitting roadmap for logistics projects. The milestones in this article reflect press reports published up to early October 2026; the master plan proposal and the scheme may still be adjusted when officially issued.