House Hunting

Apartment or house? how many rooms? swimming pool?, garden? or garage? and what location? these are the questions we have had to answer in our search for a house. The big question we are asked is "what is the budget?". I have viewed a couple of areas and like the area called "Tay Ho". This is the area that we have been staying in at the moment in the serviced apartments.

Picture: Serviced apartments we are staying called Sedona Suites

I have been exploring the streets of "Tay Ho" and this area seems to have many expats living here and seems very safe. Many expats walk around at night. This area seems to have a lot of life to it and a bit of sole. It has a nice mix of new and old feeling to it so this is the area we have mainly been looking in for housing. A newer area I have viewed across the lake from Tay Ho is called Ciputra which also has a lot of expats living there but to be honest, nothing seems to be out of place, all the houses look the same, and feels very secluded from everything. I am not sure how I would tell where I lived most likely going to the wrong house when arriving home.

Pictures: Homes look all the same in the Ciputra area

Land in Hanoi is very expensive. We have found houses are usually built very close together with not much garden. If a house has a pool then it is usually located under the house which seems a bit strange. Most homes have four levels and if you are lucky the roof top has an entertaining area but a lot of the homes I have seen don't. It has been very hard to find everything on our wish list so what I thought was important in the beginning I have had to reconsider.

Picture: The driveway of the house we are considering renting

I am glad that if we can not find anything that we are happy with then we are able to stay in the serviced apartments for as long as we need. There is one house we are going to consider which I will be talking to the estate agent about as there are a number of things that would need to be fixed and changed before a long term lease is signed because once a lease is signed then people have told us that things don't seem to get done which is common practice.