Oakwood Residence Hanoi: a buyer's guide

Oakwood Residence Hanoi occupies a quiet lakeside address on Đặng Thái Mai Street, in Quảng An Ward on the Tây Hồ (West Lake) peninsula — one of Hanoi's most established corridors for long-staying foreign professionals and relocating families. The building opened in 2019, developed by Van Phu Invest, a Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange-listed Vietnamese group (HOSE: VPI), and has carried the Oakwood name since it opened; Oakwood itself became part of The Ascott Limited, CapitaLand Investment's serviced-residence arm, in 2022, which gives the property a global reservations and management network rather than a single independent operator running the show.

The complex holds around 250 fully furnished apartments, from studios to two- and three-bedroom and penthouse layouts, each designed for natural light and a balcony view over West Lake or the city skyline. Residents share an all-season indoor pool, a fitness centre, a residents' lounge and an in-house restaurant, and the building carries EDGE green-building certification from SGS Vietnam — a marker of insulation and running-cost efficiency worth noting for anyone comparing build quality across Tây Hồ's serviced stock. For buyers weighing a serviced residence against a standalone freehold apartment, Oakwood is a useful benchmark of what West Lake-standard service looks like; we cover that trade-off in more depth in our guide to investing in serviced apartments in Hanoi.

Families relocating to this stretch of Tây Hồ typically shortlist UNIS Hanoi or the British International School Hanoi (BIS), both within the district; professionals cite the short commute to the diplomatic quarter around Ba Đình and the Old Quarter's business core. For a buyer scouting the neighbourhood rather than the building itself, Oakwood functions less as a property to acquire than as a reference point — its finish and service level show what a premium West Lake address looks like before comparing freehold apartments nearby.

No — not directly. Oakwood Residence Hanoi is an investor-owned, operator-run serviced residence: Van Phu Invest holds the building, Oakwood manages it under a hospitality contract, and the apartments are leased to long-stay tenants rather than sold individually, the way a condominium tower would be. Searches for "Oakwood Residence Hanoi for sale" or "price" usually reflect confusion with condominium developments that do sell units — Oakwood is not one of them, and Maison Hanoi will not list units here as if it were, or invent a price that does not exist.

That search intent still points to real demand: buyers who like this stretch of Tây Hồ and want to own, rather than rent, at a comparable standard. That is achievable, just not inside this specific building. Foreign buyers can hold a renewable 50-year ownership certificate — the Pink Book (Sổ hồng) — on apartments in eligible commercial-housing projects, capped at a 30% foreign-ownership quota per building under the 2023 Housing Law. Because the 2024 Land Law reserves land-use rights to Vietnamese nationals and eligible entities, ownership always attaches to the building unit, never to the land beneath it. Eligibility also depends on the project itself qualifying as a licensed commercial-housing development under the Real Estate Business Law's implementing decree — a check worth running as part of any independent due diligence before reserving a unit.

The nearest like-for-like alternative we track is neighbouring Ba Đình — Hanoi's diplomatic quarter, bordering Tây Hồ to the south, with its own embassy row and a deeper bench of freehold apartments open to foreign buyers under the same 50-year regime. Most of that stock sits in condominium towers governed day-to-day by an owners' general assembly rather than a single hospitality operator — a different management model worth understanding before comparing running costs to Oakwood's all-inclusive service charge. The photos, current listings and map below cover that district: real inventory, at a comparable standing to Oakwood, that a foreign buyer can actually purchase.

• 2023 Housing Law (Luật Nhà ở, Law No. 27/2023/QH15) — sets the 50-year renewable foreign-ownership term and the 30% per-building quota.
• 2024 Land Law (Luật Đất đai, Law No. 31/2024/QH15) — confirms land-use rights are reserved to Vietnamese nationals and eligible entities; foreign owners hold the building unit only.
• Decree 96/2024/ND-CP — implementing decree for the 2023 Law on Real Estate Business, detailing eligible commercial-housing projects.
• Decree 95/2024/ND-CP — implementing decree for the 2023 Housing Law (foreign-ownership registration and quota administration).
• Decree 10/2022/ND-CP — sets the 0.5% registration fee (lệ phí trước bạ) referenced in the cost table above.