If you own an apartment in Hanoi and live somewhere else, or are about to leave, letting it is straightforward once you know the order. This guide is for the foreign owner: whether you can let it, how to price it, how to find a tenant, the paperwork, and what an agent does for the fee.
Check you can let it
Foreigners can own an apartment in Vietnam, and an owner can lease it out. Before you advertise, make sure the ownership document, the pink book, is in your name, and read the building’s rules: some limit short stays, and many want tenants registered with the management office.
Price it from homes like it
What a home lets for depends on its district, its size and how it is furnished, not on what you paid for it. Look at what similar homes are listed for now: the Hanoi Rent Index shows typical rents by district and size, worked out from live listings. A home priced at the market lets in weeks. One priced above it can sit empty for months, which costs more than the difference.
Get it ready
Tenants decide in the first minute of a viewing, and fix-it-later promises put them off.
- Mend everything that is broken before the first viewing
- Service the air conditioners and clean their filters
- Decide which furniture stays, and list it for the lease
- Take bright photographs in daylight, with every room tidy
- Keep a recent electricity bill to hand, to show how it is charged
Find a tenant
Owners in Hanoi use three routes, and many use more than one.
- Facebook groups: free, but every enquiry, viewing and follow-up is yours to handle, often at short notice
- A local agent: shows the home and finds the tenant for a commission. Agree the amount, and who pays it, in writing before they start
- A letting agency that also prepares the lease and helps with the tenant’s paperwork
The paperwork
Most of the trouble between owners and tenants comes from something that was never written down.
- A written lease that says the same thing in Vietnamese and in the tenant’s language
- The deposit, and the conditions for returning it, written into the lease
- A condition report with photographs, signed by both of you on move-in day
- Your tenant’s temporary residence registered with the local police: as the landlord, that is your job
- The rent declared, and tax paid on it: rental income is taxable in Vietnam, and a local accountant can register and file for you
Our guide to tạm trú explains the registration. What tenants check in a lease written in Vietnamese and how tenants get their deposit back are the same documents seen from the other side.
If you are not in Hanoi
Someone has to be there for the viewings, the handover, repairs and the end of the tenancy. Choose that person before you advertise, and give them written authority to act for you: a careful tenant will ask to see it.
Listing with Nest
Listing your home on Nest costs nothing, and any commission is agreed with you in writing. An advisor checks the details with you before anything is published, tells you what similar homes are letting for, brings you each serious enquiry and arranges the viewings. You set the rent and choose the tenant. List your property in about three minutes.
Find your apartment the safe way
Verified listings, transparent all-in pricing, contracts in your language, and no tenant agency fees. Browse homes or talk to a Nest advisor.
