Self-leveling electricity prices
Amidst the scorching hot weather in Da Nang, thousands of workers and low-income workers are facing pressure from rising living costs. In the role of a person in need of renting a room in the area near Hoa Khanh Industrial Park, reporters went to rows of rooms in streets such as Thanh Vinh 1, Thanh Vinh 2, Thanh Vinh 4, Thanh Vinh 10 (Da Nang City)... and caught the eye of passersby by a series of signs hanging close together with the content "rooms available for rent".
Visiting a newly built row of boarding houses on Thanh Vinh 10 street, reporters were directly quoted by a landlord named Hung (name of the character has been changed) for a room fee of 3 million VND/month for large-area apartments. Notably, when mentioning electricity and water costs, Mr. Hung quoted the average electricity price at 3,800 VND/kWh, and domestic water was 50,000 VND/person/month. Not stopping there, this row of boarding houses also "created" a common service fee (wifi, garbage, washing machine, hallway electricity) with an additional fee of 50,000 VND/person.
Before the question about the fact that some other places have cheaper electricity prices, Mr. Hung explained: "We are a newly built room type, bearing additional costs for operating water pumps and common lighting. If we collect the correct price of the state, we will suffer losses.
Continuing the survey on Thanh Vinh 1 street, reporters approached a landlord named Minh (character name has been changed). Mr. Minh quoted a budget room price of only 900,000 VND/month. However, the accompanying electricity price was pushed up to 4,000 VND/kWh. This person explained briefly: "This sunny season, calculate as much as you use, equal to 4,000 VND/kWh". For a couple household, Mr. Minh set a water price condition of 50,000 VND/person, which means 100,000 VND/month.
Tricks to besiege low-income people
At another row of boarding houses, when approaching and asking about room rates for a worker family with young children, the homeowner instructed them to choose to rent a large room for 3 million VND instead of a small room for 1.4 million VND to have spacious space and a kitchen. However, the common point of most rows of boarding houses in this area is that electricity prices are set at a range of 3,500 VND to 4,000 VND/kWh.
To increase revenue, many landlords apply distorted measures by arbitrarily creating service fees, or arbitrarily setting domestic water prices according to the number of residents instead of calculating according to actual consumption volume. Therefore, between sky-high electricity prices and hot weather, the total monthly rent of a worker household is unreasonably inflated, directly affecting their already meager salaries.
Due to urgent housing needs and psychological fear of conflict, most workers and poor laborers are still gritting their teeth and silently paying spontaneous tips to landlords.
