It's school season, but many rented rooms in Vinh City are still deserted.

In Vinh City, the beginning of the new school year is considered the "room rental" season because this is the time when many new students begin their studies. At this time in previous years, the dormitories were bustling with renters, but this year they are deserted, the number of renters has dropped dramatically.

According to a survey of many boarding houses in Hung Dung ward and Ben Thuy ward - the places with the highest number of tenants in Vinh city, currently, many boarding houses are still empty, and some rooms are even degraded and damaged due to lack of long-term tenants.

A row of boarding houses in Tan Nam block, Hung Dung ward is deserted due to its deterioration and lack of private restrooms. Photo: Quang An

Ms. Nguyen Thi Huyen, a landlord in Hung Dung ward, sighed: My house has 10 rooms for rent. Before, there were a lot of students. As soon as someone moved out, someone else moved in. They even paid a deposit to keep the room. But for the past year, the whole row only has 3-4 rooms rented, the remaining rooms are always empty...

That is also the situation of dozens of boarding houses in Vinh City today. According to observations, most of the empty boarding houses were built many years ago, have small areas, are covered with hot corrugated iron roofs, and the toilets are far away, very inconvenient. That is one of the reasons why many boarding houses are deserted.

The room was left empty by the landlord because there were no tenants. The furniture was damaged and the floor and walls were moldy. Photo: Quang An

Le Thi Ha, a new student at Vinh University, shared: "My criteria for choosing a room is that it is airy, clean, and especially has a private bathroom, even though it is more expensive than a shared bathroom." However, currently, the number of rooms with private bathrooms in Hung Dung and Ben Thuy wards only accounts for about 40%.

Ms. Phan Thi Binh, a landlord in Ben Thuy ward, said: The trend of students now is to rent a closed room, we also understand that, but now demolishing the old house and rebuilding a new one would cost a lot of money, with fewer and fewer students going to university, I'm afraid that if we build it, there won't be anyone to rent it.

Room for rent signs are posted everywhere in Vinh City. Photo: Quang An

Currently, the price of renting a non-closed room in Vinh City ranges from 500,000 - 600,000 VND/month; a closed room costs from 800,000 VND or more. With such a not too high price difference, it is understandable that students accept to pay more money to live in a closed room, convenient for life and activities.

In addition, while traditional boarding houses are in a slump, student housing areas still maintain a stable number of students. In Vinh City, Vinh Trung student housing area in Trung Do ward and Vinh University student housing area in Hung Binh ward are both chosen by many students. According to students, the advantages of these areas are that they are close to the school, the rent is much cheaper and there are security guards so security is guaranteed.

Vinh Trung student housing area, Trung Do ward. Photo: Quang An

To reduce the lack of customers, some traditional landlords have agreed to reduce room prices by 50,000 - 100,000 VND/month to save the situation. Many people have even printed billboards and posted them on social networks, but when people call to ask for a room, they only ask briefly, come to see the room and then do not rent it.

The current trend after finishing high school is that students often go to work or export labor abroad, the number of people studying at university and college is gradually decreasing, so the business of renting rooms at this time is extremely difficult. Landlords need to learn about market information and have an investment plan to avoid heavy losses.