Almost everyone that lives here spends part of their time house hunting at all times because no matter where you move to, it never really feels that nice. I have been in my apartment for years and I am not really very happy with it. However, I don't move to another apartment because the offerings are pretty dire and I have been to other people's apartments and realize that theirs are just as "blah" as mine is, many are much worse.
I do still subscribe to this real-estate group on the chat app we have here called Zalo, and I get daily updates on apartments that are available because people just keep moving in and out. I find a lot of the apartments to be almost depressing and I can't imagine actually trying to live in them.
A couple of things that are unfortunately quite common in most apartments here in Da Nang is alarmingly tiny kitchens with very little prep space. The whole having 4 chairs is sort of dumb in my mind too because how in the heck are you going to cook for 4 people when there is one stove cooking spot and almost nowhere to do any sort of prep like cutting vegetables or mixing anything?
This is that same apartment but the picture is taken from the opposite side. This apartment has been listed as a "1-bedroom" and apparently the agent doesn't know what these words mean because this is not a 1-bedroom. This is a studio and not a very good one at that. I really don't understand how the room ended up being this shape. This apartment is massively overpriced just like almost anything else in Da Nang and it costs nearly $600 a month. I hope the location is divine because the apartment certainly isn't.
Another thing that almost all apartments have are very uncomfortable and small sofas. I have NEVER seen a comfortable sofa in any apartment here other than this one sample unit is a really expensive place that was $3000 a month.
This is another 1-bedroom that I saw and this one technically IS a 1-bedroom because there is a door on the bedroom. Can you imagine having your bed fill up the entire room? How on earth would you change the linens? I think having a smaller bed would have been a much better idea than this mess.
This apartment has a similarly cramped living room / kitchen and it was 16 million a month or approximately $700 a month. Where do they think we are? Manhattan?
This one is quite possibly the worst apartment I have seen advertised (although I am sure there are some out there that are far worse!) and this one just makes me feel depressed to look at it. This unit doesn't even have a kitchen and I guess you are supposed to cook up some noodles in that microwave. That ultra small television is very strange to me. I was in a shop the other day and TV's that are smaller than something like 35 inches actually cost MORE than the 50 inch ones so why on earth would anyone get a TV that small. I can't tell if that sofa folds out or something like that but man this apartment is terrible and claustrophobic. This one is 10.5 million or $420 a month. This is crazy rent for a shoebox apartment.
I just found out by watching the video of this apartment that the sofa folds out and is the bed. I can't imagine anyone living in this unless they absolutely had to.
It is shocking that landlords are charging this much for something so poor.
The rental markets are really bad for renters in Da Nang at the moment and I believe that property owners are milking the market for all that they can before several very large apartment developments open up. There are around 5 very large apartment blocks that are near completion and when they are finished there will be around 1000 additional apartments available in the city. At that point I think we will start to see normalcy as far as rents are concerned.
At the moment is it "high season" and there are far more people trying to rent than there are units available for rent.
Now is not a good time to consider moving to Da Nang or honestly, even visiting it. Hotels are in a similar state charging around 3 times as much as they normally would.
By the end of 2026 things will probably have changed and return to the glory days of this part of the world being nice and affordable. I honestly don't believe it is either one of those things at the moment.
There are a ton of people, primarily Russians, that are flocking to Vietnam and Da Nang to live the expat life. I really think this is a bad idea at the moment and people would be better off to wait for another year or so until the supply catches up with the demand. If someone comes now, they are going to be subjected to substandard and overpriced crap like what you see in the photos above.