The owner pays the property management fee. The tenant pays rent and what the meters record. In Vietnam the agent who finds the tenant is paid by the landlord, and everything else is allocated by the lease, not by custom.
The question comes up because three different fees hide under one word, and each has its own payer. Separating them once saves a negotiation later.
Three fees, three payers
- The management fee: running the apartment: tenants, rent collection, bills, repairs, inspections, the monthly statement. This is the owner’s cost, 4% of annual rent with us. A tenant never pays it, because the manager works for you, not for them.
- The agent or sourcing fee: finding and signing the tenant. In Vietnam this is covered by the landlord, not the tenant, which surprises owners arriving from markets where tenants pay agents. Ours is one month’s rent, payable only when a tenant signs.
- The building’s service charge: the tower’s own fee per square meter for security, cleaning and shared facilities. The building bills it regardless of who occupies the unit; the lease decides whether it reaches the tenant or stays with you.
Why the landlord pays the agent here
Owners arriving from markets where tenants pay their own agents sometimes read the Vietnamese arrangement as a cost shifted onto them. Read it as market structure instead: every listing a tenant sees in Hanoi is free for them to pursue, so your apartment competes on rent, condition and photos, never on who charges the viewing.
The protection for the owner is in the timing, not the payer. One month’s rent bills only when a tenant signs, so a listing that produces twenty viewings and no lease costs nothing, and an agent is paid for a result rather than for activity.
The building charge is a pricing decision, not a fee dispute
Whether the service charge sits inside the rent or on top of it changes nothing about who ultimately funds it — the money comes out of the same tenancy either way. What it changes is the headline rent your listing shows against other listings.
So make the decision once, at pricing: quote rent with the charge inside and carry it, or push it to the tenant and say so in the lease in writing. The arrangements that go wrong are the ones nobody wrote down.
Utilities follow the meter
Electricity, water and internet belong to the person using them, metered and in the tenant’s name or settled monthly against readings. The handover readings on day one exist exactly for this line — a tenancy that starts from documented meters never argues about them at the end.
Repairs sit with the owner, damage sits with the deposit
Keeping the equipment running is an owner’s cost: it is your asset being maintained. We pass repair invoices through at cost and add no percentage on top, and you set the approval threshold above which nothing is spent without your yes.
Damage is different, and the difference is decided by records rather than argument: deductions from the deposit stand on the condition baseline, meter readings and invoices. The photographed baseline from day one — the same one described in How It Works — is what keeps that boundary clean at move-out.
What this means for your net
Stack the owner-side lines and the picture stays simple: management at 4% of annual rent, sourcing amortized across the tenancy it produced, the building charge if you priced it inside the rent. The full annual arithmetic, with every line priced in percent and a worked dollar example, is in the cost guide: what it really costs to own and rent out a Hanoi apartment.
And the rates themselves — including what carries no charge at all — are on the pricing page.
Common questions
Does the tenant ever pay the property manager?
No. The management fee is the owner's cost for having the apartment run — 4% of annual rent with us. The tenant pays rent and their own utilities, and in Vietnam the agent fee for finding a tenant is also covered by the landlord, not the tenant.
Who pays the building's service charge?
Whoever the lease says. The building bills it regardless, so the real decision is made when you set the rent: a rent quoted with the service charge inside has to carry it, and a lease that pushes it to the tenant should say so in writing.
Are there fees when no tenant is found?
Not for sourcing. Tenant sourcing costs one month's rent, payable only when a tenant signs — marketing, viewings and screening cost nothing if no lease results.
