Rental agents

A long-let agent we used ourselves: he found us a modern, warm house — a rarity by local standards, because there is no heating in this town and most houses go cold in winter. Contact is over Zalo: you send the district, the budget and the term, and the answer comes back as a list with photos and map pins. The text runs through a translator, so no Vietnamese needed.

A long-let agent. Houses and flats in Da Lat barely appear on listing sites: the market runs on people, each with their own folder of addresses, and finding something decent without an intermediary is rare. It works like this: you send the district, the budget in dong and the term over Zalo, and back comes a list with photos and map pins to choose viewings from. The correspondence is in Vietnamese, but the text goes through a translator fine.

A long-let agent. Viewings here happen in person: several addresses are lined up and driven round in one go, so allow half a day and follow on your own bike. The request goes over Zalo — district, budget in dong, term — and the options come back with photos and map pins.

Handles whole houses rather than flats: all ten listings we went through were houses. A wide range, from 5m ₫ for a hundred-metre house with a basement to 30m for a four-level one. His listings spell out what most do not: plot and floor area separately, frontage and depth, the layout floor by floor. You can read the plan before viewing. Two districts — Lâm Viên and Cam Ly: the north-east around the lake and the west of the centre.

Works almost only with flats, and almost only furnished ones: his listings keep repeating «just bring a suitcase». One, two or three bedrooms, furniture in place, new buildings. Of the nine listings we went through, eight were flats and one a house. He works one district only — Lâm Viên, the old wards 8, 9 and 12: the north-east around the lake.

A contact recommended by a reader who looked for housing through him and was happy with it. The options came quickly, and so do his replies. He speaks fluent English. According to the reader he talks the small things through rather than giving one-word answers, and he is easy to deal with.