One to two months’ rent is the standard deposit in a Hanoi lease. Expat.com’s Hanoi housing guide and forum accounts through 2025 put two months at the top of normal practice, and three months outside it.
The number itself is the easy part. What decides whether a deposit does its job two years later is what was written down and photographed on the day the tenant moved in.
One to two months is the market; three is a signal
Expat.com’s Hanoi housing guide, updated in April 2025, puts the normal range at one to two months’ rent on a one-year lease, and forum accounts from 2025 describe a one-month damage deposit plus one month’s rent as the routine package. The same forums put landlords asking three months’ deposit at the point where prospective tenants walk away.
For an owner, that is useful in both directions. Asking above the range shrinks your pool to tenants who can fund it, which is not the same set as tenants who will stay and pay on time. A deposit is security against damage and arrears, not a test of how much cash someone can produce in one week.
The number is a contract term, not a statutory figure
No fixed amount is set for you. The deposit is whatever the lease states, which means it is negotiable, and so is what it can be deducted for. That is why the amount matters less than the terms attached to it.
Two months held under a lease that says nothing about deductions is weaker protection than one month held under a lease that lists what comes out of it and on what evidence.
Prepaid rent is a different demand from a deposit
A deposit is security you are holding and expect to return. Prepaid rent is rent collected early. Bundling them into one figure hides both how much cash the tenant is handing over and how much of it comes back.
Keep them on separate lines in the lease. A tenant who pays two months’ deposit and monthly rent has a clear picture of what is refundable; a tenant who hands over a deposit and a block of prepaid rent in one transfer usually does not, and that ambiguity resurfaces at move-out.
A deposit only protects you if move-in condition is documented
This is where most deposit arguments are actually won or lost, and it happens on day one rather than at the end. Our onboarding produces a condition baseline for the apartment, built from a move-in inspection with photographs. That inspection is part of tenant sourcing, and where it sits in the wider onboarding sequence is set out in How It Works.
Two years later that file is the difference between a deduction that closes in a message and a deduction that becomes a dispute. Without it, a disagreement about a scratched floor comes down to two memories, and the tenant is the one holding a claim on your money.
Deductions stand on records, not on memory
A deposit can be reduced for arrears, for damage beyond fair wear, and for unpaid bills left behind. Each of those needs a document: the rent ledger, the condition baseline, the final meter readings, the invoice for the repair.
Fair wear is not deductible, and drawing that boundary is easier when the starting condition is on file. Where arrears are the problem rather than damage, the offset mechanics and the order things happen in are covered in what happens if my tenant stops paying.
Do not confuse the sourcing fee with the deposit
Two different amounts get called “one month” in the same conversation, and they move in opposite directions.
The deposit is paid by the tenant to you, held, and returned. The tenant sourcing fee is paid by you for finding and signing that tenant: one month’s rent, payable only when a tenant signs. In Vietnam the landlord covers the agent, not the tenant, which is set out in who pays the property management fee.
Write the return terms before a tenant asks
Four things belong in the lease before signing: the deposit amount, what it can be deducted for, how many days after move-out it is returned, and who returns it. Agreeing these while everyone is cheerful takes one paragraph. Agreeing them at move-out takes a negotiation you are conducting from another country.
The rest of the drafting checklist for letting from overseas is in how to rent out a Hanoi apartment as a foreign owner, and the day-to-day handling of deposits, bills and inspections is what our property management service covers.
Common questions
How much deposit can a Hanoi landlord ask for?
One to two months' rent covers normal practice, with two months at the top of it, in expat.com's Hanoi housing guide and forum accounts through 2025. There is no statutory figure, so the amount is whatever the lease states and it is negotiable on both sides.
Is a three-month deposit legal in Vietnam?
It is not illegal, because no fixed amount is set for you. It is outside normal practice: the same expat.com accounts put one to two months at the top of the range, and describe three months as the point where prospective tenants walk away. Treat the deposit and any prepaid rent as separate terms in the lease.
When does the deposit have to be returned?
Whenever the lease says, which is why the timeline belongs in the lease rather than in a conversation at move-out. Set the number of days, what can be deducted, and what evidence a deduction stands on before a tenant signs.
