Hey what's up guys?
I'm lakeside here, this is just a one minute walk away from my new apartment.
I never imagined living so close to a lake in Vietnam, I think this is the biggest lake
in Hanoi.
There's just a lot of people, there's nice park space.
And, you know, families are out there.
There's people exercising, there's lots of free exercise machines, just like Korea.
So you get a lot of the old people and stuff, doing light workouts and stuff.
Working the ellipticals and other kinds of stretches.
It's really good to see this.
I like this environment and I like that it's right by my new apartment.
So speaking of new apartment, this is the apartment hunting video in Hanoi.
In Hanoi, just like anywhere else, it depends on what you're looking for in terms of housing.
You know, if you're looking for like a two bedroom, if you're looking for a studio, if
you're looking for roommates.
Those are all going to be factors that go into finding your place, right?
So just like anywhere else in the world, Hanoi has its very low range, and very high range.
If you want to spend a couple grand for an apartment per month, or if you want to spend
just a couple hundred bucks.
So those options do exist.
While looking for apartments, there's several ways you could do it.
You could call a real estate agent, themselves, you can go online, I went through the "Hanoi
Massive Housing" Facebook group.
It's a really great place where you can find posting on all types of units, for rent, or
for sale.
Short term, long term, it's all listed there.
So initially I was looking for a room in a shared apartment ranging between $170 to $250
and hopefully one of those rooms would have an "ensuite bathroom" meaning that the bathroom
is inside the room, not outside of the room.
And also a private balcony.
I wanted some natural lighting and if possible a balcony space where I could look up some
emails and stuff like that.
Drink a cup of coffee in the morning and just chill on my own balcony.
So the first apartment, I was taken to this place that has actual slum surroundings, there's
like a sewage stream and it had like styrofoam and all this other trash in it.
Not the first thing that I want to see when I'm coming, literally, to the first apartment
in Hanoi.
We go in this very nice big first floor but also in the kitchen we turn on the lights
and there were all these rats.
It was pretty gross.
So it's dark, he turns the light on, and I hear all this noise, like what the hell is
happening?
And all the pots and pans in the sink and stuff are moving around and then like 3 rats
go jumping out the window.
That was totally unexpected and so on top of the slum stuff, plus the rats, that's definitely
not something you want to see while house hunting.
So immediately, those two things, without even seeing the room, I was just like nope,
off the list.
But just to show you guys what the rooms do look like.
There was a room, it had barely any light.
The balcony was kind of big but it faced the back of the building and so there was like
no view.
It's kind of strange to go sit out there in the morning and have a cup of coffee.
And the bathroom was shared with one person that lives on the same floor.
And that bathroom was dark and damp.
So it did not meet any of the requirements that I was hoping for, except that it was
a shared apartment, in the budget range.
Apartment 2 was in a little bit more of an actual residential area, which is great, it's
what I was looking for.
Unfortunately, the room was still occupied, the tenants weren't going to leave for another
week or two.
So that was like a really big downside.
The balcony was very tiny, and the bathroom wasn't in the room like I was hoping for.
It was across the hallway, and that also had like no natural light, it was very dark and
damp and moldy smelling.
That one was $250 per month for that unit.
The 3rd place I was looking at was $250 a month, and it had a really big room.
It had a big room with natural lighting, enough space in there for a desk and a refrigerator,
and a queen sized bed, plus like a living room, you know?
You could walk around in it and not feel like you're trapped in a box.
It did come with a small balcony, enough that you could potentially maybe put a chair out
there and a small table.
I don't know.
So this room was also occupied, and they also had the cutest puppy, that puppy was so playful.
Omg, I love dogs!
So the room itself was fine, but it seems like the shared kitchen situation just wasn't
happening.
It was really dirty, there was trash everywhere, people were mainly using the kitchen on the
4th floor on the top.
Instead of the one on the 1st floor, where the motorcycles are.
I don't know why, but anyway, both were a little bit dirty.
The unit after that was also $250 for a room in a shared apartment, it was actually next
door to the first unit that I was shown this day.
And the balcony was really small, there was only standing space, and the room was still
occupied.
It did have an ensuite bathroom, but it was kind of dark and no lighting or anything like
that.
And the room itself smelled a little bit funky, but I guess that's because it was still occupied
by the tenants who were going to leave later on that week.
So it finally came down to my 3rd day of apartment hunting, and I figured I'm looking at all
these rooms in shared apartments, between $170~$250 a month.
Maybe I'm not seeing what I'm hoping for because of the price range.
So even if I go up just a little bit and try to get some of those creature comforts that
I enjoy, such as a clean kitchen, private bathroom.
So I decided why not go for a studio, that way I don't have to worry about roommates
or anything like that.
So day 3, I checked out this studio apartment for $350 a month.
So this place had a kitchen, and a bedroom, and a patio space.
The shower was a little weird, it was this like Italian imported shower jacuzzi massage
thing, which seemed really out of place for the type of apartment it was.
There was also no air conditioning, but they did promise to me that they could have it
installed before I move in.
Yeah, this place was really like run down, it's definitely seen better days.
The ceiling panels were somehow not all the way fitted properly, so there's all these
major gaps connecting the attic to the rooms.
So you know, like roaches and centipedes and all that other stuff, could easily just come
through that stuff right into your room.
There's no sealed factor to the apartment.
The patio space was really nice, it's outdoors, up on the 2nd floor and it overlooks a nice
local street.
You get to see all the local people eating and drinking, and stuff like that.
So nightlife seems like fun, but I don't know exactly how loud it would be every night,
going into the evening when people are eating and drinking.
I don't know if it would be like Korea, where people would be out until like 2 in the morning,
or later, drunk and causing a loud ruckus in the neighborhood.
I don't know what that would be like.
There were 2 deciding factors that made me really cringe and say no to this place was
1) the bathroom.
The bathroom is not actually in the unit, you go downstairs to the 2nd level.
There's actually a boutique shop there, someone opened up like selling boutique clothing.
And outside of their shop is the bathroom, it's the toilet, and you need a key to get
in.
It's almost like a public bathroom, it seems like.
The other factor that made me decide no on that place was the fact that it was built
on top of a restaurant.
So you have to physically walk through the restaurant customers to get to the stairwell
that goes up to the place.
When I was doing that, coming in, there was all these upside cockroaches, like really
big ones.
And that makes sense, cockroaches are going to be anywhere there's a restaurant, it doesn't
matter how fancy your restaurant is, there's going to be roaches in any food establishment.
Finally, I get to check out this awesome space.
Checked out this studio apartment for $350 a month, it had a really nice open space,
everything seemed nice and new.
There was lots of natural light, and that's really something I wanted.
It had it's own kitchen space with actual granite countertop.
It's away from the road, the main road, so it's really quiet.
It's fully furnished and comes with this sofa and a nice queeen sized bed.
Unforunately it doesn't have any balcony, but you don't really need a balcony when you're
in Vietnam, you could just go to the roof if you absolutely need to.
And there was a nice chill space up there.
The laundry machine and the dryer are shared, and the roof top space is shared, but that's
it.
Everything else is all your own.
The only downside to this unit was behind the building there's all this construction
going on.
So there actually was this sewage canal that was there but the city has been trying to
get rid of these places over time, and so right now they're dredging out all that sewer
canal and they're implanting an actual proper sewerage system with pipes and stuff.
And they're going to lay cement and dirt over it, and they're going to make like a mini
backalley road behind there.
So eventually, there will be some mopeds and stuff going back and forth, but it shouldn't
be loud because it's not the main road, it's just a backalley road.
So it'll just be locals driving by and I don't mind that.
So what do you guys think I chose?
Yeah, I chose the studio apartment with the construction behind it.
It seemed the best bang for my buck, $350 a month.
So stay tuned, I'll give a proper apartment tour, full on apartment tour in detail in
another video.
So stay tuned for that.
Thanks for watching guys, I really hope you enjoyed this video, I hope it gave some insights
into apartment hunting here.
It's very easy.
There's tons of places.
You just got to come out, go for it, and you'll find your place real soon.
It took me 3 days to find an apartment here after arriving.
See you guys in the next video!
Bye!