Instead of investing millions of dollars in building properties in HCM City’s inner districts, real estate developers rent properties and furnish apartments and put them up as mid-priced serviced apartments.

Entering the serviced apartment rental market in mid-2021, M Village Company operates five serviced apartment buildings with 270 rooms and an occupancy rate of over 90 per cent.

Targeting young people with smart home knowledge, M Village develops a model of a chain of smart serviced apartments. Young people can use many services such as laundry, housekeeping, order coffee and food on their smartphones and easily pay without cash.

Nguyen Hai Ninh, General Director of M Village, shared that in the face of the current situation of escalating housing prices, choosing to rent a house for a long time instead of buying a house has been and will be a priority trend of young people to reduce financial pressure while still private and comfortable.

This group of customers prefer a “moving” lifestyle, so they often choose apartment projects for rent in areas near schools, entertainment spots, or cultural centres for about 1-5 years. Not only that, young people only have a moderate budget, so the requirements for apartments for rent are not too high.

A 30sq.m apartment on Nguyen Dinh Chieu Street in District 3 with a kitchen and washing machine, refrigerator and wifi cost $450 a month.

They cost up to VND900,000 ($38) per day for shorter terms.

Experts said that mid-priced serviced apartments have mushroomed in the last two years with average monthly rents of around $500.

These are targeted at relatively wealthy tenants who have to work in these areas for short periods.

Young tenants prefer mid-priced serviced apartments. While expatriates working for multinational groups usually prefer regular apartments in inner districts, the young tenants prefer comfortable mid-range serviced apartments that offer them privacy instead of boarding houses. — VNS