At 12 noon, Mrs. Nguyen Thi Chi (67 years old, from Ben Tre) returned to a shack in Vinh Loc B commune (Binh Chanh district, Ho Chi Minh City). Due to the complicated epidemic situation, her business of selling lottery tickets has been severely affected. Going all morning, she has not sold more than half of the lottery tickets received from last night. “Selling too slow, I’m worried this month I won’t be able to pay for the room. Fortunately, the landlord has announced that he will cut my rent by half,” said Ms. Chi, adding that she would tighten spending. To save money, every day, she eats only white rice and dried fish that was given to her by a neighbor. Living in a difficult situation, she was very happy when she heard that her rent was reduced. This joy also comes to more than 300 people who are renting at Residence No. 1 (Hoc Mon district, Ho Chi Minh City). Mr. Pham Trung Hieu, the owner of the accommodation, said that during the recent Covid-19 epidemics, the Ho Chi Minh City Youth Worker Support Center and the accommodation have implemented many programs to support tenants. Currently, many motel owners have exempted or reduced rent for employees. During this epidemic, he also reduced the rent for more than 300 people staying here. “We give gifts to workers who are renting and reduce the room rate by 50%. The accommodation is supported by a sponsor of the Ho Chi Minh City Youth Worker Support Center. We will organize people to come and receive free rice next Saturday,” he said. Meanwhile, in a row of more than 20 rooms for rent on Nguyen Cong Hoan Street (Ward 7, Phu Nhuan District, Ho Chi Minh City), Mr. Ho De is free of charge for some tenants here. This is the fourth time that Mr. De has exempted or reduced the rent. He said: “Three previous epidemics, I also exempted and reduced rent. Poor families rent here for many years, I reduce the money. For students, students with difficulties, I always free rent.” Ms. Only received a reduction in the rent of the room from the lessor. To save money, she only eats white rice with the dried fish given to her. Local people said that Mr. De’s exemption and reduction of rent is not uncommon. Because more than 40 years ago, he had taken care of, even for people with difficult circumstances, poor students to stay in free accommodation. Leave a house of tens of billions, treat tenants like family In particular, recently, he completed a will with the content of leaving 2 houses worth tens of billions of dong for the lonely elderly and poor students – free of charge. Ho Thi Nhu Quynh, a student at the University of Industry 4, who is renting here, said: “Every epidemic, Mr. De also visits and asks for the innkeepers”. “He put up a notice to give everyone a 50% discount on rent. However, when he knew which families were too difficult, he reduced them from 60-70% of the rent. Some people are completely exempted from rent by him,” Nhu Quynh said. Similar to Mr. De, Ms. Nguyen Thi Thuy (owner of a motel room in Tan Quy Ward, Tan Phu District, Ho Chi Minh City) also reduced the rent and space for the poor from last May. This is the fourth time that Mr. Ho De has exempted or reduced the rent. However, until this June, the epidemic situation in Ho Chi Minh City was still complicated, so she continued to reduce the rent. She even actively reduced the rent of her already very low business premises. Mr. Nguyen Van Tai, the tenant of Ms. Thuy’s premises, said that he and his wife rented the business front in front of Ms. Thuy’s inn to sell soft drinks. Although located in a large street frontage, crowded with people, convenient for business, Ms. Thuy rented it to him at a very cheap price. “In this epidemic, Ho Chi Minh City was separated for a long time, so I sold very little. One day, we barely sold anything, it was very difficult. Fortunately, Ms. Thuy actively reduced the rent. This has helped our family a lot during this tight time,” said Mr. Tai. Thuy shared, most of the tenants here have been with her for many years. According to each person’s circumstances, Ms. Thuy will reduce the rent differently. She said: “In the epidemic, people who work are unemployed, business people are sluggish… Therefore, their income has also decreased a lot. How can I collect enough rent? I try to reduce the rent, rent the premises so that they can help some or that part. Right now, I just want to help workers overcome the pandemic so that they can stabilize their lives and send money back to their hometowns.” Like Mrs. Thuy, Mr. Hieu said, he always considers the people who are renting with him as “family members”. When his “family” was severely affected by the epidemic, he could not sit still. Therefore, even though he knew that he would lose a large amount of income when reducing the rent by 50% for more than 300 people, he still tried to do it.

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.

According to the Daily Mail, Mr. Johnson, ex-wife Marina Wheeler bought the house in 2003 for £ 690,000. Currently the house is worth about 1.2 million pounds. The house has a minimalist décor with white walls and wooden floors.

The new tenants will own a house about 288 square meters with 4 bedrooms. On campus there is an outdoor swimming pool and a small house with kitchen and fireplace.

British Prime Minister Johnson rents the house. (Photo: RIA)

British authorities said Prime Minister Johnson and his family could not stay in the property because of confidentiality principles under British Government regulations, forcing him to live in the Chequers mansion.

Traditionally, the country mansion that the incumbent prime minister stayed, rested on weekends and hosted international guests was the Chequers Palace, located on the 600-hectare grassland and forest in Buckinghamshire.

Mr. Johnson was not the first British Prime Minister to rent out his home when he moved to 10 Downing Street.

In 2010, former Prime Minister David Cameron also rented a house in Notting Hill worth 2.7 million pounds for about 6,000 pounds a month. And former Prime Minister Theresa May also rents out a London property, reports show she earns £ 10,000 a month.

In November 2019, Mr. Johnson sold the house in the north of London for £ 3.75 million (more than $ 4.6 million). The house used to be the home of Mr. Johnson with his second wife, Marina Wheeler, before the couple announced their divorce in September 2018. This five-story house was bought by Prime Minister Johnson in 2005 for nearly $ 2.4 million. The house is designed according to traditional architecture, has an area of ​​more than 306 m2 with 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms.

In March, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson wants to set up a charity to pay for the costly renovation of his home. The former work was overseen by the politician’s fiancé, Carrie Symonds – she has been unable to control her expenses, putting her future husband in a difficult situation.

Renovating an apartment on Downing Street in London costs “tens, tens of thousands of pounds”. In another conversation Mr. Johnson complained that the cost of repairs amounted to “more than a hundred thousand”.

To overcome this situation, Mr. Johnson decided to set up a charity that will receive funding to survive as a cultural heritage fund. Establishment application is being prepared. The head of the fund will be Baron David Brownlow, a millionaire and former Vice President of the Conservative Party of England.

Before that, in July 2019, Boris Johnson became the first British Prime Minister in history to live with an unmarried woman at the Prime Minister’s Palace at 10 Downing Street.

In April 2020, Prime Minister Johnson’s fiancé, Carrie Symonds, gave birth to a baby boy at a NHS National Health System hospital in London.

Some pictures of the British Prime Minister’s house for rent:

(Photo: The Image Barn)