Expenses incurred when renting an apartment in Ho Chi Minh city

Find an apartment in Ho Chi Minh city isn’t an easy job. There are various of choices for you to make but unless you know exactly which one is suitable for you, having a quick decision sometimes leads to a big regret. It is no big deal if you have lots of money to spend on your housing issues. However, if your budget is low, then you have to calculate your spending in order to afford everything in your capacity since rental fee isn’t the only payment you have to consider.

It might a shock when you figure out there are many fees incurred when renting an apartment. Here is the list of fees you should notice to compute your budget before decided to rent an apartment.

1. Utility fees

In Ho Chi Minh city, the monthly rental cost often includes no utilities. If the rent covers any kind of fees, the owner will tell you before signing in the contract. The electricity price is the same wherever you are since there is only one company provide electricity in Vietnam.

However, the water price may be a little bit higher or lower in distinct apartment depends on the landlord and the provide company. If you want to use the Internet, there are many different brands for you to choose with different packages. The most well-known providers are FPT, Viettel and VNPT.

Basic utilities, including electricity, heating, cooling, water, gas is usually about $50/ month.
Internet is usually about $10, depends on which internet speed packages you are using, the higher the speed is, the more expensive you have to pay. But from my perspective, a $10 package is suitable for a family if you don’t need high speed Internet for specialty games or peculiar jobs.

2. Furniture

It is indisputable that it is cheaper to rent an unfurnished apartment than a fully furnished one. However, you have to spend those money on buying new furniture and time to decorate your apartment.

You can design your own home in the way you one if you choose an unfurnished apartment, but the consequence is you have to face the problem of moving cost when you move to another apartment. These costs are usually about $100 - $150, calculated by the weights of your stuff, the distance, etc.

3. Cleaning fee

Cleaning fee in Vietnam for general or in Ho Chi Minh for particular is cheap in comparison with other developed countries. It only costs less than $3/ hour for cleaning services, equal to a cheap meal in many nations around the world.

4. Management fee

I don’t know what it is like in other countries but in Vietnam, you have to pay management fee, or also called administration fee monthly for the owner. This fee is less than a dollar for a sqm/ month. Some contracts may include management fee in rental fee if you can negotiate with the landlord.

The administration fee responsible for: clean and maintain public areas and facilities in the building such as hallway, elevator, plants, lighting as well as pay for cleaning and security staff.

5. Parking fee

This is an issue you have to consider when renting an apartment because the price is fluctuated between districts. Some apartments in District 1 is lack of parking spaces so if you come late, you have to find another place to park your car and costs more money to spend. Moreover, parking fee in District 1 is the highest among Ho Chi Minh city. On the other hand, apartments in District 2 have a big parking lot for their citizen and the parking fee is also cheaper so it is more convenient for their residences.

6. Security deposit

In Vietnam, after renting an apartment, you are asked to pay at least 1 month in advanced plus usually 1 month of rental cost for serviced apartment, 2 months for houses or apartment and 3 to 5 months for villas as a deposit. This money is for reparation in case you broke anything in the future. It is easier to get back the deposit in Vietnam than other countries at the end of the rental term. If you don’t, contact to agencies to help you with this problem.