Hidden cost index
What Renting in Hanoi Costs on Top of the Rent
Electricity, water, service fees and internet, taken from the bills our landlords have actually written down.
These are the bills recorded on Nest Living listings that are on the website today. They are not a survey of Hanoi, and they are not an average of the city: most of these homes are in Tay Ho, and every figure below describes our own catalogue and nothing wider.
By bedrooms and district
The fixed bills column is the middle value of the monthly bills stated on the homes in that group, added together. Electricity is nearly always charged by the meter in Hanoi, so it is shown as a price per unit and is never added into the monthly figure. Both columns say how many homes they rest on. Where that is fewer than 8, we print the count instead of a figure: a middle value over a handful of homes is one landlord’s price list, not a typical cost.
| Home | Homes | Fixed bills | Electricity |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 bedroomTây Hồ | 165 | 200,000per month · 60 homes | 4,500per kWh · 142 homes |
| 2 bedroomsTây Hồ | 117 | 450,000per month · 17 homes | 4,500per kWh · 98 homes |
| 1 bedroomBa Đình | 81 | Too few homesper month · 2 stated it | 4,500per kWh · 14 homes |
| StudioTây Hồ | 71 | 200,000per month · 34 homes | 4,500per kWh · 60 homes |
| 3 bedroomsTây Hồ | 53 | 200,000per month · 15 homes | 4,500per kWh · 29 homes |
| 2 bedroomsBa Đình | 16 | Too few homesper month · 3 stated it | 4,500per kWh · 9 homes |
| 3 bedroomsLong Biên | 13 | Too few homesper month · 3 stated it | 3,500per kWh · 9 homes |
| 4 bedroomsTây Hồ | 12 | Too few homesper month · 4 stated it | Too few homesper kWh · 5 stated it |
| StudioBa Đình | 11 | Too few homesper month · 6 stated it | 4,500per kWh · 9 homes |
| 1 bedroomHoàn Kiếm | 10 | None statedper month | None statedper kWh |
| StudioĐống Đa | 6 | Too few homesper month · 1 stated it | Too few homesper kWh · 6 stated it |
| 1 bedroomHai Bà Trưng | 6 | Too few homesper month · 1 stated it | Too few homesper kWh · 2 stated it |
| 4 bedroomsLong Biên | 6 | Too few homesper month · 1 stated it | Too few homesper kWh · 6 stated it |
| 2 bedroomsThanh Xuân | 5 | Too few homesper month · 5 stated it | None statedper kWh |
| 3 bedroomsBa Đình | 4 | Too few homesper month · 1 stated it | Too few homesper kWh · 2 stated it |
| 2 bedroomsHai Bà Trưng | 3 | None statedper month | None statedper kWh |
| StudioHoàn Kiếm | 3 | None statedper month | Too few homesper kWh · 3 stated it |
| 6 bedroomsTây Hồ | 3 | None statedper month | None statedper kWh |
| StudioCầu Giấy | 2 | None statedper month | Too few homesper kWh · 2 stated it |
| 1 bedroomGiảng Võ | 2 | None statedper month | None statedper kWh |
| 5 bedroomsTây Hồ | 2 | None statedper month | None statedper kWh |
| 3 bedroomsThanh Xuân | 2 | Too few homesper month · 2 stated it | None statedper kWh |
| 3 bedroomsCầu Giấy | 1 | None statedper month | None statedper kWh |
| 1 bedroomĐống Đa | 1 | None statedper month | None statedper kWh |
| 2 bedroomsHoàn Kiếm | 1 | None statedper month | None statedper kWh |
| StudioLong Biên | 1 | Too few homesper month · 1 stated it | Too few homesper kWh · 1 stated it |
| 2 bedroomsLong Biên | 1 | None statedper month | Too few homesper kWh · 1 stated it |
| 3 bedroomsNam Từ Liêm | 1 | None statedper month | None statedper kWh |
Bill by bill, across every home
How often each bill is charged on top of the rent, and what it comes to when it is. Amounts are kept separate by how they are charged: a price per kilowatt-hour and a fixed monthly charge are different kinds of number and are never mixed. A bill that is included in the rent is counted, never averaged in as a zero.
| Bill | Charged on top | Typical amount | In the rent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Electricity | 411of 599 homes | 4,500per kWh · 398 homesToo few homesper month · 1 stated it12 more homes charge for this, with an amount we could not read | 8stated · 16 implied |
| Water | 236of 599 homes | 200,000per month · 131 homes150,000per person, per month · 105 homesToo few homesper cubic metre · 1 stated it | 13stated · 174 implied |
| Drinking water | 125of 599 homes | 80,000per bottle · 112 homes80,000per month · 14 homesToo few homesper kWh · 1 stated it | 8stated · 269 implied |
| Service fee | 120of 599 homes | 400,000per month · 117 homesToo few homesper person, per month · 3 stated it | 10stated · 273 implied |
| Laundry | 51of 599 homes | 300,000per month · 51 homes | 8stated · 338 implied |
| Cleaning | 8of 599 homes | 999,500per month · 8 homes | 19stated · 375 implied |
Stated means a landlord told us this bill is covered by the rent. Implied means they listed the bills they charge, did not list this one, and told us the list was complete, so it should be covered. Implied is an inference from what is missing rather than something anyone wrote down, which is why it is counted apart. Ask the advisor to confirm it before you sign.
What is behind these numbers
Every figure above rests on this. Where we hold nothing, this page says so rather than filling the space.
- Homes on the website599
- With bills itemised by the landlord431
- Every bill included in the rent8
- No bills recorded either way160
- Bill lines left out because the amount cannot be a monthly charge15
- Homes left out, district not yet established3
“No bills recorded” is not the same as cheap and it is not the same as included. It means nobody has written the bills down for that home yet, and an advisor will find out for you before you commit to anything.
Why the rent is only half the number
Two homes advertised at the same rent can cost meaningfully different amounts to live in. In most Hanoi buildings the electricity is metered and billed at a price per unit, water is either metered or charged per person, and a management or service fee covers some mixture of cleaning, water and internet that changes from building to building. None of that is visible in the headline rent, and it is normally discovered after the lease is signed.
The figures above are the ones our landlords have written down, home by home. They will not tell you your electricity bill, because that depends on how much air conditioning you run through a Hanoi summer. They will tell you the price you are being charged per unit, which is the part you can compare between two buildings before you choose.
What to ask before you sign
Ask which bills are inside the rent and which sit on top, and ask for it in writing on the lease rather than as an answer at a viewing. Ask what the service fee actually covers, because the same phrase means cleaning and internet in one building and nothing but the lift in the next. Ask what the electricity is charged at per unit, and whether it is the state tariff or a building rate.
Every listing on Nest Living shows the bills its landlord has itemised, on the listing itself, next to the rent. Where a landlord has not itemised them, the listing says so rather than inventing a figure, and an advisor will get the answer before anything is signed. Our renting guides cover the rest of a Hanoi lease, and the Hanoi page has every district we currently have homes in.
How this page is worked out
Every figure is a median, not an average, so one unusually expensive building cannot drag a whole group upwards. Every figure is printed with the number of homes it rests on, and no figure is published for a group of fewer than 8 homes. All amounts are in Vietnamese dong, as charged; nothing on this page is converted into another currency, because a conversion is only as good as the exchange rate behind it and a rate printed once goes stale quietly.
A metered bill has no monthly total and is never treated as though it had one: an electricity price of a few thousand dong is a price per kilowatt-hour, and adding it to a monthly figure would understate the bill by a factor of a hundred or more. Where a bill is recorded as a monthly charge but the amount is under 50,000 dong, we treat the entry as unreadable rather than guessing what was meant, leave it out of every figure, and count it in the panel above. The page rebuilds every five minutes from the live catalogue, so it follows the listings rather than a stored copy of them.