Rental market in Vietnam is overpriced

"It's massively overpriced compared to other Asian megacities where salaries are much higher. I definitely agree that the quality of those rentals (even 12-18M/month ones) is low. Owners are just greedy, the demand is not that high. True, I pay more here than I would pay for a similar apartment in a nice city in Europe. And the quality of the apartment here is much lower. Rent prices lately make absolutely no sense."
pjv8g2wzpz

"Even for locals... rent is tough. Too many greedy landlords trying to claw back money from the past few years. Look at commercial rents too.. ridiculous.. so much upfront money and often landlords don't repair anything."
Russ Harvey

"75-80% of serviced apartments occupied. That's a vacancy rate of 20-25% and is nowhere even remotely high demand for rentals. 5% availability or less is the definition of a high-demand rental market. In cities like New York or Sydney 3-4% rental availability is standard. The real story is landlords are struggling to pay back debt. HCMC has had too many high-cost apartments built and not enough people with either the means or the desire to fill them."
Pascal Visage

"Demand is way below supply. The truth of the market is that many have bought apartments 1-2-3 years ago to surf the wave of buy and sell quickly to make good bucks. Only that they bought it with short terms loan and when they found out it was extremely difficult to sell them, the only solution is to rent it at high price to cover the overdue loan's rates. Some are so desperate that rent the apartment by days on Airbnb (Masteri for example). On top of that, if your landlord raises the rent every two months, you have made a bad rental agreement!

Simple exercise: call any real estate agent and tell them you price range and area. In a few days he will come up with nothing less that 4-5 choices, and if you push him, even 10."
Edwardsfinest

"The rental market is a nightmare here. Massively overpriced (just compared to local incomes) and low quality units. Overcharging on electric, and no tenant rights. Greed greed greed! Thailand is half the price or less and much higher quality."
BigTruth

"If you want cheap, [there are] plenty of places not in Hanoi or HCMC centers that are more affordable."
Tim