LookAtVietnam – University students have flocked to Hanoi to begin the new school year. However, the first thing they need to do before attending class is to find rooms to rent.

The rent may reach one million dong in some days

“Come back in early September,” Phan tells students who ask to rent the rooms.

“Some students have asked to rent the rooms at 800,000 per month, but I’m not hurrying to lease the rooms right now. The rent will be higher in early September, when universities call up first-year students,” he said, adding that he expects to lease the rooms at 1 million dong per month.

A woman in the same area complained that she agreed to lease a room at 700,000 dong, while the rent may reach one million dong in some days.

Students are now facing not only room rent increases, but electricity and water price increases as well. The owner of rooms for rent on Phung Khoang road now asks for 650,000 dong per month in rent instead of 550,000 like a few months ago. Meanwhile, students are required to pay 3,700 dong per kilowatt of electricity used instead of 3,000 dong, and 34,000 dong for water instead of 30,000.

After two days of tramping the streets, Thuy Hanh, a student at Hanoi National Economics University, found a suitable room on Tran Dai Nghia road, 14 square metres, for which she was told she would have to pay 1.2 million dong. Hanh put a deposit down on the room, though the required rent was too high for her, thinking that she could invite someone to share the room to ease the financial burden.

However, when she returned the next morning, the room owner said that she could only rent the room if she paid 1.4 million dong.

Hanh found out that before she came, the owner promised to lease the room to another student at 1.1 million dong and, she broke the promise when she met Hanh, who agreed to pay 1.2 million dong.

“She breaks her promise when she meets more generous clients,” Hanh said.

Pham Van Quang, a third-year student at the Civil Engineering University, has successfully got a room to rent at No 192 Le Trong Tan street at 700,000 dong per month. But he does not feel happy as the room owner always threatens to raise the rent.

“The rent keeps escalating and I don’t know when the increase will stop,” Quang said.

VietNamNet/DT