Íæż½ã½ã

Hi Henry,

It's been my experience anywhere that this clearly depends on whether you are dealing directly with the owner of the property or an agent. Agents who manage rentals won't budge an inch in most places, since they are almost always paid a fixed percentage of the rental amount for managing a property.

If you're dealing with the owner, you clearly stand a much better chance of haggling down the rent. First you must inspect the property before agreeing to anything. Here a keen eye is EVERYTHING!!! Make a note of every minor defect, the apartment has not been freshly painted, air conditioner too noisy or leaking,  leaking taps, squeaky flooring, anything that you can find that someone might possibly complain about. The more the merrier! Then run the list off to the owner and tell him/her that before you could agree to such a "high" rent those would certainly need to be repaired, and before you take possession. Or, you could overlook some or all of those (you choose based on your priorities) defects for a more reasonable rent, then make your offer. Lowball the rent and then wait for the owner to either accept or make a counter offer. If he/she accepts your initial proposal then you've come off as the winner. If the counter offer is reasonable and you like it you're still the winner. If the owner agrees to fix everything before you occupy the apartment, but maintains the original rent, you're still ahead of the game as I see it. I'd say that you should shoot for a discount of around 10 to 15 percent anywhere, but of course that would depend on what rents on similar properties in the area are going for and their condition too.

Cheers,
James      Íæż½ã½ã-blog Experts Team

I think you should check the house with similar price on the renting website and compare by location you want stay and other condition before you bargain. Notice that on Internet, some house seem to cheap but difficult to live.

Thanks Guys..

That is very helpfull.

/Henry

Wow I learned alot from this topic thanks James for the info and thanks StarvinMarvin for the post!

James' information is spot on. I have never paid the asking price for an apartment in Cambodia, I managed to knock appx 25% of the asking price off of my current place.

Another negotiating tool which may help to reduce the price, is paying several months rent in advance. Instead of paying a deposit for my current place, I paid 6 months rent in advance, then when that 6 mths were up, I paid another 6 months in advance, so on and so on. Obviously you need to make sure that you are 100% happy with the property and the landlords if you intend to do this, because if you decide to leave in that time then you can kiss your money good bye (unless you have an honest landlord).

rarky wrote:

James' information is spot on. I have never paid the asking price for an apartment in Cambodia, I managed to knock appx 25% of the asking price off of my current place.

Another negotiating tool which may help to reduce the price, is paying several months rent in advance. Instead of paying a deposit for my current place, I paid 6 months rent in advance, then when that 6 mths were up, I paid another 6 months in advance, so on and so on. Obviously you need to make sure that you are 100% happy with the property and the landlords if you intend to do this, because if you decide to leave in that time then you can kiss your money good bye (unless you have an honest landlord).

Thanks a lot Rarky. Thats a good option. 25% is quite a bit.

Cheers/Henry

I would ask for a rental price up to 25% off the asking one, and then accept a discount of 10-15%.  If you sign a lease for a year, this is easier to achieve,