“Initially, I only planned to grow vegetables and flowers to have a place for my children to admire and play. Unexpectedly, a year later, I had a green vegetable garden on an area of ​​3m2 of the balcony”, Mr. Nguyen shared. shall. Without much experience and knowledge about farming, for the past year, Nguyen has had to tinker with, learn the characteristics, and how to take care of plants. “Growing vegetables on the balcony will be much more difficult than growing on the terrace, because of the narrow area, lack of sunlight and constant cleaning. Fortunately, my balcony faces east, so it receives sunlight from morning to noon. This makes an important contribution to good green vegetables,” Nguyen said. According to Mr. Nguyen, soil is also an important factor to help plants grow well. He chose a mixed soil consisting of coconut humus, bean residue, rice husk ash and mixed with cow manure and treated vermicompost to plant trees. To create a nutrient-rich soil substrate, Nguyen mixes soil and organic fertilizer at the ratio of 60% soil plus 20% processed cow dung and 20% treated vermicompost. After that, he incubated with lime and put it in a pot. Once a week, he fertilizes vegetables once a week. “When adding fertilizer, I mix soil and fertilizer equally, absolutely no chemical fertilizers. Sometimes, I mix coffee grounds, aloe vera sap when harvesting to make fertilizer.” electromechanical engineer shared. One very important thing to keep the tree healthy is to take care and water it regularly. “If the plant lacks water, it will die or if we over-water the plant, the roots will be waterlogged,” Nguyen said. He also installed an automatic watering system for peace of mind when away from home. In addition to scallions, Mr. Nguyen’s garden also has basil, lettuce, lemon basil, mint, perilla, spinach, spinach, broccoli, aloe vera… Growing vegetables on high-rise balconies will also be attacked by insects or pests. At first, his vegetable garden had a similar situation. To protect vegetables, Mr. Nguyen uses a biological product to irrigate the plants, since then, aphids, aphids, red spiders, rollers, and snails no longer appear. Nguyen at his vegetable garden. Green butterfly pea plant. To grow a variety of plants in a narrow space, Nguyen took advantage of shelves, pots, and plastic bottles. Next, he neatly arranged the planting pots to look both beautiful and grow many different types of plants. From the day he had a balcony garden, Mr. Nguyen took advantage of the morning and afternoon to water, check for pests and diseases as well as the nutritional status of vegetables. Every weekend, his children go out to the balcony to learn about plants and how to care for them, and harvest the fruits themselves. Watch more videos: Hanoi is strangely beautiful in the rice flower season, the red color dispels the cold of Ban Tu Anh Photo: Character provided

The aisle between the 3m2 rooms is very narrow, dark and humid.

Costs 1 million VND per month, just go to the room to shower and sleep

Currently, the “super small” area of ​​only about 3m2 is the choice of many young people because of low cost, regardless of the inconvenience of living space and living.

In Hanoi, this type of accommodation has just appeared in the past few years, tends to flourish in the districts of Cau Giay, Dong Da, Hai Ba Trung, … where many universities (University ), colleges (colleges), large students and low-income workers.

As noted by PV, a 6-storey house with an area of ​​45 square meters on Mai Dich Street (Cau Giay) initially had only 8 bedrooms but was redesigned to have a “super” number of rooms for rent – nearly 80 rooms private. The first floor of the house is a shared kitchen and parking space, starting from the second floor onwards is a private room, including two large rooms with an area of ​​about 18-20m2.

What makes viewers surprised when coming here is the design and arrangement of the rooms that do not seem much different from the “honeycomb”. Inside the large room is divided into 8 independent small cells by laminate boards. Each room is 3-5m2 wide, just enough for one person to live in; most are very tight, without windows. In the room, the owner has installed clothes rack, storage bar, electric socket, light bulb and ventilation system. Corridors less than 1m wide are common paths for the whole room. Outside is the shared toilet. These houses are also equipped with a number of other basic amenities for tenants such as wifi, shared air conditioning.

The room is too small, just enough to hang a few clothes and some personal belongings.

LHA (23 years old, a student at Hanoi Electromechanical College) – the tenant here said: “I’ve been here for nearly half a year, the room has 2 people, the rent is 1.3 million dong / month, more living expenses, each person only costs about 1 million. For students, this price is also quite reasonable ”.

However, according to LHA, living in such “honeycomb” apartments is also quite inconvenient.With the number of people on each floor is relatively large, the living space is narrow, noisy, a large room. There is only one door, not to mention the sharing of the kitchen, toilets, laundry drying area that have to wait a long time for each other’s turn.

“Most of the tenants here are students and employees because the rental is low. Because the room is tight, tight and stuffy, people often eat out and only come here in the evening to shower and rest, ”added LHA.

Most of the tenants here choose to eat out, as the whole building has only one shared kitchen.

There is supply there must be demand, but there are potential risks

Currently, the demand for low-cost single-room rentals of students and low-income workers in Hanoi is increasing.

Ms. Nguyen Tra My, owner of a motel in Xuan La Street (Tay Ho) said: “The entire 6-storey house is single room for rent with prices ranging from 1.3 to 1.6 million VND / month. . Most of my tenants have simple needs, they go all day and at night to rest, so rooms like this are easy to rent, not often empty.

According to real estate expert Phan The Phuong, many rental housing companies have quickly grasped the market, designing super-small apartments with relatively full utilities, both to meet the needs of guests, and at the same time. increase revenue for the company.

With a normal bedroom, when divided into 6-7 small bedrooms, the profit will increase by 60-70% of the input rent in the case of a full room lease. However, according to Mr. Phuong, with the profit, the level of risk of this form is quite high.

“This model violates the human safety zone. When living in such a dense environment, they will not be able to feel safe and comfortable. In addition, the facilities in the living space are very few, only temporary, so the tenants will not stay for a long time, so the room vacancy rate is also very high. This business model is not sustainable ”, Mr. Phuong added.

A room is only about 3m2, when no one is in, it still feels urgent.

Are “honeycomb” apartments really economical?

According to LHA, when he first lived here, he often got sick due to living in a secret space, lack of light and air. The noises from the adjacent rooms also made him lose sleep because of the plastic or laminate partitions between mini apartments containing dozens of people who could not be soundproofed.

These 3m2 honeycomb apartments not only cause inconvenience for users but also can affect the house they are in. The rooms, which are inherently only for 2-3 people, are suddenly “transformed” into countless independent rooms, with the number of people many times over, and the space is seriously “overloaded”.

Talking with PV, architect Nguyen Trung Kien said: “The honeycomb model is quite popular in countries such as Japan, Korea, because the climate of those countries is dry all year round, not humid or hot or humid. like our country’s climate. Therefore, we do not support the widespread development of this model in Vietnam ”.

According to Mr. Kien, when renovating the original room into “honeycomb” rooms, to be safe and not affect the scope of construction, companies and design units should use lightweight materials such as : Plaster, plank wood, composite “… Besides, it is necessary to have a reasonable calculation and division of the number of rooms to avoid overloading, limiting the impact on the house structure.