Traditional boarding houses in Vinh city are deserted during the school year

Traditional rental rooms are sluggish.

The beginning of the new school year is considered the peak of the rental season because many new students start their studies. However, in contrast to the bustle of previous years, many traditional boarding houses in the areaVinh CityThere are currently no tenants.

Mrs. Nguyen Thi Oanh's family in Hung Dung ward has 2 rows of boarding houses with 14 rooms. For more than ten years, Mrs. Oanh's boarding house has always been the first choice of guests.studentbecause it is close to schools such as Vinh Medical University and Vinh Technical Pedagogical University. However, this year, only half of the rooms are rented, the rest are still "waiting for guests".

Ms. Oanh shared: “At this time in previous years, parents and siblings of students came to see rooms to rent for their children to enroll in school. But in the past 2 years, it has been completely deserted. Last year, it took until October 2022 for the rooms to be filled, but this year, the number of people asking to rent has been completely absent. Every day, I clean and tidy the rooms waiting for students to rent, but only a few students come to ask and then turn away. The number of rooms currently rented are mainly working people, there are very few students…”.

Not only Ms. Oanh’s boarding house but also hundreds of boarding houses in Vinh City are in the same situation at the moment. Most of them are deserted, the further away from the university or college, the more deserted they are.

It is known that currently, the rental price of a room in Vinh City has dropped dramatically, for a closed room, it ranges from 700,000 - 1 million VND/month depending on the area, for a room without a closed room (shared bathroom), the price is only 300,000 - 600,000 VND/month. However, this price still does not attract tenants. Some landlords are even willing to pay rent in arrears with the main purpose of hoping that the room will have people living there to avoid being deserted and leaving it empty for too long.

There are many reasons why many boarding houses in Vinh City are in a slump. The main reason is that the number of students studying at universities, colleges, and vocational schools in the city has decreased sharply, while they are the main customers of boarding houses. Many students after graduating from high school tend to work far away, export labor, etc., so they no longer study at schools.

In addition, another reason is that most of the vacant boarding houses have been built for many years, have small areas, are covered with hot corrugated iron roofs, have inconveniently far away toilets, are not environmentally friendly, and some boarding houses are located in areas that are flooded every year. Therefore, even though the rent has dropped sharply, many tenants are still not interested.

Upgrade rooms to find guests

To reduce the sluggish situation, many landlords have increased their advertising on social networking sites, are willing to reduce rent for those who pay deposits in advance, and even print billboards and post them all over the streets with phone numbers for tenants to contact, but there are still no positive signs.

According to the reporter's research, the current general trend of students and renters is to find rooms with full amenities such as renting an entire house together, or newly built rooms. Even though the price is twice as expensive as traditional rooms, many renters are still willing to pay. Understanding this psychology, many landlords are also forced to upgrade and renovate rooms to attract customers.

Ms. Phan Thi Hien, a landlord in Ben Thuy ward, said: "Nowadays, economic conditions are much different from the past. Parents also invest more in their children's education. Students now do not rent small, old rooms even if they are cheap. Understanding this mentality, to prepare for this school year, I had to spend money to re-tile the rooms, install air conditioners, washing machines, and cameras. Even though I charge extra for these devices every month, students are willing to pay more. Currently, all 10 of my rooms are fully occupied with rental prices ranging from 1.5 to 2 million VND/month."

In addition, some apartments and mini apartments in Vinh City are also the top choice of students, with rental prices ranging from 3 to 5 million VND, groups of students can live together from 3 to 4 people to reduce costs. These areas have many advantages such as being in the center, clean, ensuring security and order, fully equipped with living facilities, etc.

For traditional, long-standing rental rooms, because they are no longer attractive to tenants, some landlords have demolished and rebuilt them into kiosks for business rental, avoiding the situation of being left empty for too long.

According to statistics from the Ministry of Education and Training, at the end of the first round of admission registration on the General System, 494,488 candidates confirmed their admission, accounting for 80.8% of the total number of candidates admitted in the first round. Thus, 117,795 candidates were admitted but did not confirm their admission in the first round. Previously, in 2022, the number of candidates confirming their admission in the first round on the System was 463,025/567,419 admitted candidates (accounting for 81.6%).

Looking at the enrollment data for 2022 and 2023, it shows that many candidates, even though they are on the admission list, still do not choose to enroll. Each year, there are about 100,000 candidates who do not confirm their enrollment in the first round.

There are many reasons why candidates do not choose to enroll in university or refuse to confirm admission such as: Changing future goals, studying abroad, learning a trade, exporting labor, starting work immediately or wanting to enroll in another school with additional wishes...