well, one thing, besides most landlords having a habit of firstly only wanting to offer "time limited" contracts, such as a 1 or 2 years agreement, which only includes a clause about "renewal" and then tells you that the prices went up, instead of offering a minimum duration period, after which the contract simply would continue under the same conditions, many prefer to "mention" the price in USD.
That's actually against the law, nobody except banks or special cases are allowed to charge or invoice stuff in foreign currency. However, as it anyway is common practice, the main reason why rental agreements involving foreigners use USD instead of VND as the currency regulating the price, is simply a way to circumvent, and therefore, to avoid having to worry about financial losses related to inflation!
In short, try to phrase your contract which is based on an initial minimum duration, followed by an ongoing, repetitive and automatic 12mth extension (perhaps by annex), and if you're looking for max security but max flexibility for yourself, with a termination clause, whereas the lessor has a 12mth notice period, while the lessee or tenant has a 3mth notice period. In case the fee is listed in foreign currency, then insist on including "equivalent to the fixed exchange rate of XXX VND to 1 USD, for the duration of the contract".
Now to the other matter, the question about electricity costs. Yes, there has been a significant increase, especially since the beginning of 2025.
I'm not an expert on this but this has been, or rather became an increasingly high priority topic during the course of this year, and especially the last few month. So much so, that our company created a new "energy savings committee", which is mainly tasked with non or low CAPEX methods, to identify options and solutions to reduce power consumption. The bottom line reason for this implementation, is as a direct consequence, resulting from the conclusion after the 1.Q.2025 performance review, where it became obvious, that all PNL's showed a huge, unexpected, double digit RED candle! Each division showed similarly and hugely in excess of budget high numbers related to "utilities". Quickly it became clear that this cost explosion was entirely related to electric power consumption, which came as rather shocking finding. Mainly due to all sorts of massive investments like installing Solar systems, replacing old lighting systems with more green LED solutions, you name it, we did it, and have been spending a fortune on it, year after year!
So how come all that effort didn't just fail to show an improvement, but to the contrary of all expectations, managed to trash and destroy all hopes when the PNL's were published?
Simple, the PNL's were made with actual costs in currency.
However, to everyone's surprise, when using LFL numbers, but instead of VND's, looking at the actual kwh consumption, there wasn't a single negative evolution. In fact, most PNL's showed a 5-10% kwh decrease.
So, the cause is clear, it is all due to massive increases caused by higher price tariffs as issued by the VN authorities. Noway to escape!
That said, my main thoughts are, if a rather large corporation wasn't able to "understand" and even caught off guard, then what chance would the average individual have, to be better prepared, let alone be able to escape increasing living costs, such as these?
At the same time, I wonder how drastic this specific increase is and how the majority manages to cope with it? What I would have to share if an expat came moaning and groaning about what to do for shelling out an extra 50 or 100 bucks per month, well, probably just "mate, forget it" or for those who can't swallow it, "dude, it's time to go home"
That said, I fully agree with anyone who's trying to avoid any unnecessary expenses or who wishes to implement saving methods by following simple practices.
In case you didn't know, the new or current pricing policy in Vietnam, uses a quite complex cost calculation system, which is based on different prices during different times of day.
I can't recall the full details off the head, but I know that they are quite significant. So much so, that when you're speaking of let's say an industrial sized production line, there are certain times of day, when it's best to shut down and skip a few hours here and there. I think lunch time is one of them.
if it's possible to reduce 5% on industrial scale, then it should equally be possible for everyone else to apply such changes regarding everyday habits, like turning off the aircon.
I'll try to get those times and numbers/tariffs.
Yet again, I can't remember the last time we had a power cut, that alone is enough for me to happily pay a bit more and thereby help contribute in improving and expanding the existing grid!
