Two Megacities, One Blueprint: How Vinhomes is Reimagining The Future of Asian Cities

Global real estate is shifting how it judges ESG performance, from individual buildings to entire portfolios. Unlike building-level certifications such as LEED, GRESB, the world's largest ESG benchmark for real estate, assesses companies at the entity level.  

It now covers more than 2,200 property companies, funds, and developers, representing $9 trillion in assets. Institutional investors increasingly treat GRESB scores as a gatekeeping criterion for capital. A single green flagship is no longer enough; what counts now is consistency across the whole portfolio.

Alongside that shift, transit-oriented development (TOD) is reshaping how cities are planned across Asia. Colliers describes TOD, which clusters housing, retail, and services around transit hubs, as a key solution for sustainable, efficient urban growth: walkable, mixed-use spaces that raise quality of life and drive economic growth. 

The United Nations projects that about 68% of the world's population will live in cities by 2050, forcing megacities to fold public transit, healthcare, education, and green space into a single master plan.

Vinhomes is meeting both trends not with a single project, but with a strategy applied across its entire portfolio. Its 2025 Annual Report identifies TOD as a "long-term strategy," alongside a "People-Centered City" model that places amenities within easy reach. Both megacities follow the same playbook: Vinhomes Green Paradise (Can Gio, 2,870 hectares) is served by a 350km/h high-speed rail line that puts central Ho Chi Minh City 12-15 minutes away, operates a Vinmec-Cleveland Clinic healthcare system, and targets BREEAM Communities and ISO 37122 certification. 

According to a Vinhomes announcement, Global Gate Ha Long (6,200 hectares, facing UNESCO-listed Ha Long Bay) will likewise have high-speed rail cutting the trip to Hanoi to roughly 23 minutes, the same Vinmec-Cleveland Clinic medical ecosystem, and a bid to become the world's first urban development pursuing ISO 37125, the emerging sustainable-cities standard.

That puts Vinhomes in the company of successful polycentric cities like Tokyo and Singapore, where multiple hubs are linked by public transit rather than everything radiating from a single CBD, as in New York or London. 

With Green Paradise and Global Gate Ha Long running the same ESG++ playbook at opposite ends of the country, Vinhomes is demonstrating that sustainability isn't a single showcase project, but a capability that scales across the portfolio. Independent research houses are taking note: CBRE Vietnam names Can Gio International Port, home to Vinhomes Green Paradise, as a long-term infrastructure catalyst for the south, while Savills puts Vinhomes' megacities (Ocean Park, Smart City, Global Gate, and Wonder City) at more than 50% of Hanoi's housing supply and sales in 2025.