Hanoi’s sidewalks are beginning to reclaim their original purpose. The plastic chairs, street-side displays and merchandise that once crowded pedestrian paths are steadily disappearing, as regular inspections and AI-powered cameras leave businesses no choice but to comply with the city’s intensified crackdown.
Now, the city is taking its sidewalk crackdown a step further. On March 14, Hanoi’s Department of Construction gathered public feedback on a draft resolution on regulating the commercial use of the sidewalk. According to that, businesses can legally lease public sidewalk space, with fees capped at VND 45,000 (US$1.7) per square meter.
Sweeping crackdown brings visible change
Since the start of 2026, sidewalks once packed with plastic chairs, street stalls and parked motorbikes have become noticeably clearer, even in areas where enforcement is not physically present.
The transformation follows what many residents describe as the city’s most sweeping sidewalk enforcement campaign in years. In addition to regular patrols, authorities have deployed AI-powered cameras capable of identifying violations and issuing fines in real time.
Many food and beverage businesses have pulled tables and chairs back onto private premises or front steps, avoiding any encroachment onto public walkways. Iced-tea stalls and street vendors, meanwhile, have largely retreated into alleyways, squeezing operations into spaces barely a square meter wide, with customers often seated deep inside side streets.
One shop owner in Cua Nam Ward told Thanh Nien that the business now keeps all tables and chairs strictly within its storefront, no longer daring to place “anything at all” on the sidewalk. The loss of outdoor seating, the owner said, has cut revenue by 40–50%.
For those whose livelihoods depend on sidewalk commerce, however, the adjustment has been far more difficult. Vendors are now making use of every available corner — from construction-site fences to the trunks of personal vehicles — to keep their businesses running.
The shift reveals the two roles sidewalks have long played in Hanoi: as public pathways essential to a more orderly urban environment, and as the backbone of a vibrant, deeply rooted street economy that cannot be erased overnight.
Leasing fees of up to VND 45,000 per square meter
According to the draft resolution, Hanoi’s Department of Construction has proposed a pilot scheme allowing organisations, individuals and household businesses to pay for the use of roadways and sidewalks for commercial activities.
Streets selected for the pilot programme must meet a series of criteria, including: (1) being located outside protected historical and cultural heritage zones; (2) free from major traffic congestion hotspots; and (3) being at least three metres wide and maintaining a minimum 1.5-metre clearance for pedestrians.
In addition, the scheme can only move forward if at least 50% of organisations, households and business operators along the selected streets give their consent. Authorities have also proposed installing surveillance cameras to monitor the designated roadway and sidewalk areas throughout the pilot period.
Under the proposed scheme, Hanoi will charge sidewalk leasing fees ranging from VND 20,000 to VND 45,000 (US$0.8–1.7) per square meter per month.
Suburban areas, including Son Tay, could be leased at rates of VND 20,000–25,000, while prime city centre areas such as Hoan Kiem, Ba Dinh, Hai Ba Trung and Dong Da, as well as food streets and night markets, could command the top rate of VND 45,000 per square meter.
Is that fee reasonable enough?
At that rate, a business occupying 10 square meters in central Hanoi would pay just VND 450,000 (US$17) a month. This is a fraction of the revenue many street-side businesses can generate from the same space.
On one hand, the pricing could help Hanoi bring informal sidewalk businesses under formal regulation. The fee is low enough to make legal compliance a realistic option for small vendors and low-income households who have long relied on public sidewalks to make a living.
It also signals a more pragmatic approach from Hanoi – one that appears to acknowledge the role sidewalks play not just as public infrastructure, but as a lifeline for some of the city’s most economically vulnerable residents.
On the other hand, some experts argue that the fee is unusually low compared to commercial rental prices and the economic value that sidewalk space can generate.
“Investing billions in sidewalk infrastructure only to charge leasing fees worth hundreds, or even thousands, of times less than the actual investment is simply uneconomical,” Tran Huy Anh told Thanh Nien.
According to National Assembly member Nguyen Thi Viet Nga, sidewalks should not be viewed as commercial real estate, but rather as public space made available for temporary, conditional and limited use — one that can be reclaimed whenever necessary. As such, the fee cannot and should not be interpreted as the rental price of a commercial asset with full exploitation rights,
Nga also cautioned that setting the fee requires a delicate balance. If the price is set too low, public assets risk being exploited and can be effectively transferred into private gains for a small group. Yet if the fee is set too high, the policy may end up favouring only those with strong financial capacity, pushing small household businesses out of the system and undermining its original goal of supporting livelihoods.
She added that revenue generated from sidewalk leasing should be reinvested into public space, including sidewalk upgrades, sanitation, urban greenery, street lighting, traffic safety and pedestrian amenities.
“Only then will the public see that the temporary use of sidewalks is not an exchange of public interest for the benefit of a small group of tenants, but rather a controlled management mechanism – one that recovers public value and reinvests it back into the community,” Nguyen Thi Viet Nga told Thanh Nien.
