Renting a room in Tu Liem from 2016 to now, Mr. Pham Van An (from Phu Tho) said that the room he rents is about 25m2 wide, priced at 3.3 million VND/month, fully equipped with amenities such as air conditioning, hot and cold, wardrobe, bed and closed toilet.
Recently, due to changes in his workplace, Mr. An plans to move to another area that is more convenient for travel. However, when he knew this intention, the landlord proactively reduced 300,000 VND/month to keep customers.
Since I was a student renting a room, I have seen that there is almost no case of landlords automatically reducing prices. But now landlords are also softer because finding new customers is not as easy as before" - Mr. An said.
According to Mr. An, in the past 2 years, the rent of rooms in many areas of Hanoi has continuously increased. Not only increasing with each contract extension, many landlords also adjust additional costs when upgrading the amenities in the room. Mr. An said that a friend once had his rent increased after the landlord installed a new washing machine for the row of rooms. "Every time the contract is renewed, the rent increases, so many tenants are quite stressed," he said.
Similarly, Ms. Nguyen Thi Hoa (Cau Giay, Hanoi) said that recently she went to find a room for her younger sister and was quite surprised to see that the supply of boarding houses and mini-apartments is relatively large.
Notably, at the row of rented rooms she used to rent about a year ago, the current room price is about 500,000 VND/month lower than before.
When I rented, the landlord almost did not reduce the price because the room was very quickly closed, but now asking again, the price is softer. It may be because it is the low season, and the occupancy rate may not be as high as before" - Ms. Hoa shared.
Surveys on some rental real estate platforms show that in many wards of Hanoi such as Tu Liem, Cau Giay, Hoang Mai or Ha Dong, rental prices of mini-apartments and boarding rooms are showing signs of slowing down.
Some homeowners are starting to apply support policies such as free service, rent reduction for the first few months or direct price negotiation with long-term residents to maintain the occupancy rate.
Mr. Nguyen Trong Dung - a real estate broker in Hanoi - said that the main reason why rental prices are starting to cool down is that the price level in the past time has increased quite high, exceeding the affordability of many young workers and students.
I often participate in boarding room search groups on social networks. When someone asks to rent a room, I will support finding and collect a small introduction fee. Recently, I have seen many tenants start to consider spending more, no longer accepting the high price as before. Many people switch to living together, looking for rooms far from the center or choosing smaller areas to save costs" - Mr. Dung said.
According to Mr. Dung, in addition to the slowdown in rental demand, the supply of rental housing is also increasing rapidly as many investors who previously bought mini-apartments and apartments to exploit for rent simultaneously put products on the market.
Information about universities gradually moving out of the inner city of Hanoi is also having a certain impact on the psychology of the rental market.
Over the past time, many universities have planned to expand or transfer training activities to areas such as Hoa Lac, Thach That. This has caused a part of landlords in inner city areas to start worrying that future rental demand may decrease. Although the impact has not occurred immediately, many landlords have proactively adjusted prices to keep customers stable instead of continuing to increase sharply as in the previous period" - Mr. Dung added.
