According to Lao Dong's records, the boarding house rental market in Hanoi in the early days of August began to become bustling when many universities announced lists of directly admitted students.
These days, Tran Thu Van, a second-year student in Hanoi, is looking to rent a room but has many difficulties in finding cheap rooms. Many homeowners announce that rooms are out of stock, while rooms that are still vacant have quite high rental prices.
Van said that she needs to rent a room to live alone, without a shared owner, with a price of under 3 million VND/month. However, in the Cau Giay area, there are not many rooms that meet this price.
Many shared boarding rooms, small in area, lacking basic amenities, are still rented at prices from 3.2-4 million VND/month. Not to mention, in many boarding areas, tenants also have to pay additional service fees, electricity, water and other expenses, totaling nearly 1 million VND/month. Thus, if living alone, the total monthly room rental cost may exceed 4 million VND - a fairly large amount for students.
According to a survey, at the beginning of August, some landlords and mini-apartment owners in Hanoi began to adjust rental prices upwards.
For example, a mini apartment of about 30m2 in an alley on Cau Giay street is being rented for 6.2 million VND/month. In addition to rent, tenants must pay electricity bills of 4,000 VND/kWh, water bills of 4,000 VND/m3 and service fees of 200,000 VND/month (including hallway electricity, elevators and garbage collection).
Although advertised as an apartment with one bedroom and one living room, when they came to see it in reality, the middle of the room was only divided by an iron wall, dividing the bed area and kitchen. The homeowner still introduced this as an "1 sleep, 1 guest" apartment.
Mr. Tuan (character name has been changed) - the owner of the apartment above said that the rent at this time is already higher than about 3 months ago. According to him, the room used to be rented for 6 million VND/month, now it has increased to 6.2 million VND/month. According to him, the price of mini-apartments in this area is currently high and may continue to increase from mid-August, when universities announce the list of admitted students, the demand for rent increases. At that time, finding cheap rooms will be even more difficult.
In the same Cau Giay area, a rented room on the 4th floor, which requires stairs, is being offered for rent at 3.5 million VND/month, this price slightly increased by about 200,000 VND compared to the beginning of the year. Along with that, the homeowner said that the electricity bill is 4,000 VND/kWh, the water bill is 4,000 VND/m3 and the room has no parking space.
A reporter's survey shows that the price of rented rooms and mini-apartments around universities in Thanh Xuan, Cau Giay and Dong Da areas is still maintained at a high level. Rooms with air conditioning and basic furniture are being rented at prices from 3.5-6.5 million VND/month.
According to a landlord, from August to September every year, when students enroll and return to Hanoi, the demand for renting rooms increases sharply, so cheap rented rooms become even scarcer. In addition, many landlords have invested in upgrading facilities, so rents are unlikely to decrease.
Experts recommend that, at a time when the demand for rent is high, in addition to the price factor, parents and students need to pay attention to the convenience of travel, the security situation in the area, and check fire safety conditions before deciding to rent a room.
