Soc Son district previously had a 1/10,000 master plan approved by Hanoi City; the (old) commune also had a 1/5,000 master plan approved by the district. Hanoi is identified as a special urban area.

Mr. Ha asked, is his company allowed to apply Clause 4, Article 1 of Decree No. 35/2023/ND-CP to organize the preparation of a shortened detailed plan (to prepare a master plan and architectural plan)?

The Ministry of Construction responded to this issue as follows:

On July 1, 2025, the Government issued Decree No. 178/2025/ND-CP detailing a number of articles of the Law on Urban and Rural Planning, effective from July 1, 2025, and in Clause 3, Article 29 of Decree No. 178/2025/ND-CP, Article 1 and Article 2 regulating detailed planning according to the shortened process in Decree No. 35/2023/ND-CP dated June 20, 2023 of the Government amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Decrees under the state management of the Ministry of Construction.

Detailed planning is prepared according to the shortened process (called the "master plan" preparation process) as prescribed in Clause 2, Article 9, Article 10 and the transitional provisions in Clause 1, Article 26 of Decree No. 178/2025/ND-CP.

Conditions for land plots to establish and approve master plans are stipulated in Clause 3, Article 10 of Decree No. 178/2025/ND-CP, specifically:

"3. Land plots for construction investment projects that simultaneously meet the following conditions shall be established and approved for master plans:

a) Having a land use scale of less than 02 hectares for investment projects to build apartment buildings, apartment complexes; or having a land use scale of less than 10 hectares for investment projects to build factories, enterprises, industrial production facilities, technical infrastructure works not following the line determined according to the general planning or specialized technical infrastructure planning or provincial planning or approved technical and specialized planning; or having a land use scale of less than 05 hectares for the remaining cases;

b) In an area with an approved zoning plan or in an area with an approved general planning for In cases where there is no provision for zoning planning;

c) An investor carries out construction investment or a state agency is assigned to carry out the master plan".