I recently moved to a new, larger apartment in the same building that I have been living in for quite some time. It is an improvement upon my old place in that it is a great deal larger, but probably not all that big by western standards.
I like the added space but there is a ton of senseless furniture in here that I intend to get rid of because I don't use it. I live alone with my dog and this place came with a kitchen table with 4 chairs. I rarely eat at a table and I NEVER have people over so I totally don't need this. I have set it up as a desk and pushed it into the corner. That's good enough for me.
This is not my apartment by the way but even this pic where they have cheated with certain lenses as far as how they are going to make the apartment look is a good example of how they can kind of trick you into thinking that things about the apartment are not actually true.
For one thing, look at that lovely picture above and take note of the sofa and the table in the back.
That sofa, even though they are really trying to make this picture look great, is a piece of shit. It is not comfortable and guess what? Neither are any of the other sofas contained inside of the dozens of places I have been into in this city. The furniture in apartments that are in most people's budgets are almost always durable things that are meant for furnished apartments exclusively. I would say that there is very little chance that anyone would purchase any of these for their own homes if they owned them. The cushions are stiff and I can assure you that is not real leather, not that you would want leather in an environment where it is likely that you will simply end up sitting in a pool of your own sweat anyway.
Next up is the table in the back which I can only guess was put in the back to take the focus off of it as much as possible. Once again, these are garbage tables that make gear from Ikea look like top quality merch. No matter how much a person spends on their place they always seem to end up with the same crappy tables that are just so common that they seem stock standard.
The coffee table is no exception either. My first condo here was the only one I could find that would allow dogs. It was $220 a month and it looked like it. However, it contained EXACTLY that coffee table that is in the picture above of this "luxury" apartment.
The fact of the matter here is that unless you are extremely wealthy you are going to end up living in some sort of a cement rectangle and I'm afraid there just isn't any way around this. This sort of thing is unpreventable and you need to accept that it is simply going to end up this way.
Things to look for that you CAN control when considering an apartment in Da Nang
Mattresses: The owners don't put a lot into mattresses here and most of the time they try to hide how terrible the mattress is when someone moves in by decking it out with excessive pillows and decorative crap at the foot of the bed that doesn't serve any purpose. Lie down on the bed when you are looking at the place. Can you feel the springs poking into your back? Chances are it is not a good quality mattress but if you negotiate with the landlord they may actually have another one that they can give you. Also, if you are willing to sign a longer lease they will often agree to get you a much higher quality mattress... hell, maybe even a pillow top
The gap on the front door: Maybe this doesn't make sense but it will become important if you live here for any extended period of time. Test the front and maybe even bedroom doors to see if they close "flush." Is there any wiggle or banging sound if you pull on the handle? If there is, this might seem like a minor thing but trust me, it will become a problem later. These buildings are subjected to the air pressure created by the opening and closing of doors on other units on your floor because normally there is a very little ventilation going on for the hallways, if there is any at all. If there is "wiggle room" on your front door every time one of your neighbors comes and goes it is going to rattle your door and while this only happens every now and then, it gets seriously annoying if you have a neighbor that is coming and going a lot, especially if they do it while you are asleep. The owners of the buildings can fix this as it is just a case of altering the hinges a bit, but they friggin WONT do it unless you ask them to. In some instances the door can no longer be adjusted and you end up sticking a piece of cardboard in the gap just to silence the constant banging. Trust me on this one... it might not seem like a big deal at the time but it will become one later!
Thickness of the walls: You can normally ask the landlord if the walls are single or double bricked as this is really the only way they make condos in Vietnam or at least the part of it that I live in. Double brick costs twice as much and also cancels out almost all sound from next door. Single brick is lazy and cheap, but now your neighbors may as well be in the same room as you and I hope you enjoy the same TV shows that they do.
Windows: Which way are they facing? Everyone seems to enjoy natural light and that is what separates us from the cavemen, snakes, and lizards. If you move into a place and are just "wowed" by the amount of natural light provided by a massive amount of windows, be warned. This could be more of a bad thing than a good thing and there is a reason why what at first appears to be a wonderful unit, is constantly being vacated. This is because in Vietnam if your windows are facing the East or West you are going to have hellfire sun slamming directly into your unit for half of the day, essentially cooking you inside of it. You can combat this of course with air conditioning but then you find yourself in a situation where you are going to have a massive electric bill. So if you see a place with massive windows check to see if they also have quality blackout curtains or at least something to that end that can block the intense heat of the sun out of your living or bedroom.
Check the provided pillows! It has been my experience from both renting and renting out furnished places in the past that owners tend to re-use the pillows for as long as they can get away with. Pillows get funky, that is just a fact of life and in particular in buildings like cement rectangles in a humid and hot country like this one, they can get moldy as well. The owners of an establishment will combat this by washing them in a washing machine and I don't know if you know much about pillows, but putting them in a washing machine does something absolutely terrible to them and makes them "lumpy." I absolutely despise lumpy pillows and would rather use my own arm instead of have one like that. you can easily identify a lumpy pillow just by pressing down on it. most landlords are aware their pillows are shit and will buy you new ones if you agree to move in.
Check the fridge: While I have never had a landlord like this I do know people that have moved into a place without really checking their lease only to discover that they, the tenant, are responsible for the appliances should they break. Some unscrupulous landlords will move you into a place knowing that this is the case and polish a turd of a fridge knowing damn well that the thing is going to break in a week or two after you move in. So even if the appliances look fantastic and have manufacturer stickers on them, still ask the landlord or agent who is responsible for appliance failure and make sure to get it in writing .
I've been fortunate enough to not encounter most of the above but this was because of the fact that I did my due diligence and asked for referrals from people that either already live in said building, or know someone that has lived in it. For the most part leases don't mean a great deal here other than you losing your security deposit. They re not going to try to take a foreigner to court over something like breaking a lease. However, even if you are in the right, violating a lease can result in you ending up on a "do not rent" list and while I only know one person that this has ever happened to, he had to put down double deposits at the next place he moved into.
for the most part Vietnam, or at least the parts of it that I have experience with is a rather worry-free part of the world devoid of scams. The Vietnamese are a pretty honest people as nationalities go and certainly a lot more so than my own nationality. This doesn't mean that even good landlords wont attempt to cut corners though. Even my own landlord who is a wonderful lady who has helped me a ton cuts corners and kind of laughs about it when she gets called out.
You can get what you ask for here for the most part but the answer to every question you don't ask is "no."