Twenty-three terms a renter meets in every listing, defined in the order you meet them: what is asked, what is included, how it compares, how fresh it is, what supports it and what cannot be known. Every definition is answer-first and uses the same wording as the RentScope methodology.
All terms: Asking rent · Agreed rent (signed rent) · Price per square metre · All-in monthly cost · Security deposit (tiền cọc) · Lease term · Management fee (phí quản lý) · Electricity rate · Red invoice (hóa đơn đỏ) · Comparable listing · Rental benchmark · Percentile band (P25–P75) · Median vs mean · Sample size (n) · Confidence level · Price change · Listing renewal · Duplicate listing · Listing freshness · Source-indicated unavailability · Observed is not the same as available · Suppressed statistic · Market trend
The monthly price a landlord asks on a listing. RentScope observes asking rents from public listings: they are not what a tenant finally pays, and a signed rent is often agreed below the ask. Treat an ask as a benchmark for negotiation, not as a record of any lease — see the five fairness checks.
The rent written into the signed lease and actually paid. RentScope never observes agreed rents — only asking rents from public listings are collected. That is why every figure in the product is labelled an asking rent, and why a benchmark tells you what to expect in a negotiation rather than what anyone paid.
Monthly rent divided by the area in m². It is the only way to compare a small cheap-looking unit with a large expensive-looking one. RentScope uses the area exactly as the source publishes it and does not re-measure the unit, so compare like listings with like.
Rent plus everything billed every month — management fee, parking, electricity, water, internet. Two listings with the same ask can cost noticeably different totals. Compare all-in figures first; see the HCMC rent guide.
Cash held against damage or unpaid rent, stated in the lease. Treat the amount, the permitted deductions and the return window as negotiable terms and put them in the contract rather than agreeing them in chat — how to raise it.
The fixed period the agreement covers (for example 12 months), with the payment schedule and the notice period. Ask what the same unit costs at the term you actually want and compare the answers — that difference is a negotiation point, not a fixed rule.
A recurring building charge, usually billed per m² in condominiums and often left out of the advertised rent. Ask whether it is inside the ask or added on top, and get the per-m² figure before you compare two offers.
Ask which applies: the utility tariff billed by meter, or a fixed rate set by the landlord. Get the per-kWh number into the lease — it is part of your real monthly cost and one of the terms people most often leave unspecified.
A formal Vietnamese VAT invoice. If your employer pays the rent, or you need proof of expense, ask before signing whether the landlord issues one and who pays for it — it changes the real cost of the unit.
A listing like the one you are judging: same area, property type and bedroom count, similar size, observed recently. RentScope builds comparables from the same area within a ±25% area band over a 45-day window — how comparables are chosen.
A reference range built from comparable listings, always shown with its sample size and observation date. It is not a citywide average and not a valuation: it answers “what are similar units asking right now?” Check a specific ask.
The middle half of the comparable set — from the 25th to the 75th percentile. A rent inside the band is normal for that segment; outside it you need a reason. Reading the band instead of one number is the whole point of a benchmark.
The median is the middle value; the mean is dragged around by a few extreme listings. RentScope publishes medians and percentile bands, not means, so one unusual listing cannot move the number you are relying on.
How many eligible listings stand behind a figure. It is shown with every published statistic, and below the threshold for that scope no figure is produced at all — the count is what tells you whether to trust a number.
Two labels that are easy to confuse. Sample confidence describes how much data supports an aggregate figure, set from the count of eligible listings against a per-scope threshold. Fair Rent estimate confidence describes one individual estimate and is published capped at MEDIUM on real data, because HIGH has not proven more accurate than MEDIUM there. The two are not interchangeable — the methodology explains both.
A dated change in one listing's asking rent between two observations. It is an event about that unit. It is never evidence about the market: what a reduction does and does not mean.
The owner or agent re-posts or extends an existing listing on its source, which can make it look new on the portal. RentScope records the renewal as another observation of the same unit instead of treating it as a different flat.
The same unit posted more than once. Duplicates are merged into a single listing with every source link kept, so one flat cannot be counted twice and one price change cannot be read as two flats.
When RentScope last successfully observed the listing on its source. Freshness has a precise answer: only observations from the last 7 days enter a statistic, and every listing shows its own date — freshness and availability in detail.
Unavailability the source itself shows on the live page, recorded as approved evidence with a proven identity for that listing. A missed, failed or rate-limited check is never treated as unavailability, and a passed expiry alone is not proof that a unit is gone.
RentScope reports when it saw a listing, not whether the unit can be rented today. Availability can change between observations, so confirm with the source before arranging anything — last observed is a date, not a promise.
A figure withheld because a publication gate failed — sample too small, data stale, or a source switched off. You get an explicit notice instead of a number: suppression is the methodology working, not an error page.
A change in a market-level figure over time. RentScope does not publish trends: history is still being collected, so trend, price-drop and days-on-market claims are withheld rather than estimated — see what is withheld and why.
Two 2-bedroom asks in the same area: A = 14,000,000 ₫ for 70 m² (200,000 ₫/m²) and B = 15,500,000 ₫ for 75 m² (about 207,000 ₫/m²). If the comparable band for that segment runs 13,000,000–15,000,000 ₫, ask A sits inside the band and ask B sits above it. The numbers are round on purpose: the point is how to read a band, not what any market is doing.
Illustrative example — not observed market data. RentScope publishes observed figures only inside the app, and only where its publication gates pass. See the methodology.
The wording above is the product's own: the same labels, thresholds and caveats appear on the methodology page and inside the app. If a guide and this glossary ever disagree, the methodology page is the authority.
This page defines vocabulary; it publishes no observed statistic. Where a rule is quoted — the 7-day recency rule, the ±25% comparable area band, the 45-day comparable window, the MEDIUM cap on published Fair Rent confidence — it is RentScope's own certified rule, not a market measurement.
RentScope reports observed asking rents from public rental listings. They are not
signed-lease prices, valuations or investment advice, and no figure on this page is a market statistic.
Current observed statistics are published only inside the product, and only when the sample, confidence,
freshness, quality, coverage, methodology and source-control gates all pass. Methodology versions:
fair rent fairrent-1.2.0, comparables comparables-1.0.0,
market analytics analytics-1.0.0, Deal Score dealscore-1.1.0.
Coverage today: Ho Chi Minh City only. See the full methodology, coverage and
limitations.
The price check applies every definition on this page to one asking rent.