Thread: Renting an Apartment
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Renting an Apartment
Here are some key things to know about how to rent an apartment (aka flat) in China. [1].
Contents
* Know the Market
* Scouting the Location
* Things to Consider about the Building/Compound
* Real Estate Agencies
* Contract, Fees, And Payment
* Location-Specific Information
o Wudaokou, Beijing
[top]Know the Market
The first step, which can be done on the web: get to know the market. The real estate business in
China is mostly organised around compounds (小区 xiǎoqū in Chinese). Therefore knowing the
“compounds language” will help you a lot- which means remembering the compounds names,
locations and main characteristics. Location-specific information is available below.
[top]Scouting the Location
One of the main issues is the location of the building. Is it close to your school? Does it have
enough restaurants around to satisfy your taste for the coming months? Is there a supermarket?
What about public transport? Personally I do prefer a smaller flat but with a good location. It is
therefore interesting before starting to contact the real estate agencies to go for a day looking
around the major compounds. Walk or bicycle to feel the distance and then linger around to get to
know the neighbourhood. Better to do it in advance because you’ll have no time for that while
visiting the flat with the agent (he makes you visit the inside not the outside!).
[top]Things to Consider about the Building/Compound
How old is the building? If the building is very old, it may get cold in the winter if the heating
system is poor. If it is a brand new building, there may be issues with noise from renovations of
the unoccupied units.
Are there other buildings in the compound or in surrounding compounds that are still being
constructed? If so, there will be more dust/pollution and may be something to watch out for if you
suffer from allergies or asthma.
Does the building have elevator service? If so, is it in operation 24hrs, or does it shut off
after a certain time at night?
As for security, usually the larger and newer compounds are gated and are patrolled 24hrs by
guards.
[top]Real Estate Agencies
* First, forget about managing your deal from internet. In fact you’ll soon discover that most
of the classifieds on That’s Beijing are posted by real estate agents. So better go directly
to their offices and talk to them face to face. I’ve read here and there not to trust the real
estate agencies. My experience with the ones in Huaqing Jiayuan is in fact quite good; I never
felt as though I was being cheated (but who knows).
* Where to go ? if you are looking for a flat around BLCU, Beida or Qinghua, I would recommend
you to go within Huaqing Jiayuan compound (enter by a small gate on Chengfu lu). You’ll find
there many small agencies which specialise in finding apartments for foreign students – most
of them being Korean students in fact. These agencies have offers not only in Huaqing Jiayuan
but also all around the area - for instance they can find you a room within a Chinese family in
Dong Wang Zhuang. Normally there is always someone speaking a little bit of English in the
agency – at least enough to communicate. Of course it helps if you can manage a bit in Chinese.
* My advice is to spend the first day visiting half a dozen agencies – tell them what you want
and try to visit one or two flats with each agency. Do not decide yourself on the first day
(tell them in Chinese 我想考虑一下 wǒ xiǎng kǎolǜ yíxià "I want to think about it"
– which is a perfect sentence to leave and go to another agency). Take their business card and
leave your mobile number (the mobile is a must if you want them to contact you quickly in case
they have a new offer)
* All the agents I met were nice and helpful. Most of them are young (in their twenties) and
dynamic. It may sometimes not look "that professional" (some "so called" agencies are just desks
in the private houses of the "agents"; I even saw one agency sharing the place with a Chinese
doctor), but in a way they are quite efficient. But expect that it takes a little bit of time so
be patient. Creating trust is very important at that stage; on both sides! So once again be
patient, be nice, and smile.
* You’ll find also on the main roads some "more professional" real estate agencies like
WoAiWoJia (我爱我家) or Century 21. They focus on more expensive apartments. As far as I am
concerned my 2 months rental target was not possible with them.
[top] Contract, Fees, And Payment
* Agencies fees: NEVER PAY anything to any agency before you agree on an offer – which means
do not even pay the subway or the taxi which you will take you for your visits. In fact even
once the deal is done you should not have to pay anything to the agent – they get the
commission from the landlord (one month for a 12 month contract which means around 8%). The only
case where you should pay a commission is when the agency helps you to find a room to rent
within the apartment of a landlord or of another tenant (share flat) - in that case the agent
usually asks for 500 RMB once the deal is settled (but not before!). As far as I am concerned as
I rented a flat for myself, I did not have to pay anything to the agency.
* The contract (hétong 合同) is mostly bilingual (Chinese English) with some parts only in
Chinese (list of furnitures for instance). Note that the term of the rental has to be fixed (1
year, 6 months, or 2 months in my case). You normally pay 3 months + one month deposit when you
sign (I of course only paid 2 months + one month deposit). Sometimes you may have to pay a small
advance against an option on the rental - for instance I paid 1000 RMB directly to the landlord
against the option on the flat (written on a kind of contract in Chinese); then I paid the
balance the next day while signing the contract - but I do not think this is a very common
practice; normally you meet the landlord once and pay everything at once. Telephone,
Electricity, water and internet bills are all for you (as stated in the contract). The building
management fee and winter heating fee should be the landlord's responsibility, but I have heard
that many foreigners end up paying the winter heating fee. I think you should be able to
negotiate this - I don't know of any local renters who pay the winter heating fee.
* Short term rental: normally real estate agencies do not do anything less than 6 month rental
terms. So they were quite surprised when I asked for a 2 month rental; they however all helped
me to find something. Of course it made my search more difficult: a landlord has no advantage to
sign a 2 month contract when he could get a 6 month or one year one. While all the signing
contract & inventory process takes more than an hour, I understand that he does not want to lose
his time especially if he lives at the other side of Beijing. My only option to get something
was to put more money on the table – which means that I paid 3800 RMB for a 47 square meters 1
bedroom apartment in Dongsheng yuan while the normal price is around 2800. But this is still
cheaper than hotels around.
* Last point about the cash: getting all the cash at once is not an easy thing. If you wait for
a bank transfer remember that Chinese banks have limited foreign exchange services during the
weekend (or may even not be open) and that Friday is a very busy day there (a good hour to wait
for your turn). And with ATM remember that your VISA withdrawal authorisation has a good chance
to be well below the amount of cash you need. So think about it well ahead.
[top]Location-Specific Information
[top]Wudaokou, Beijing
That's Beijing classifieds is probably the first place to start; try also the Beijing City Guide
website. Apart from the prices you should also start learning about the locations names.
Here is a short list of popular complex in Wudaokou for a start:
* The "famous” Huaqing Jiayuan (华清家园) just west of wudaokou subway station – note
that the different blocks have different kind of apartments inside. I have seen there beautiful
modern places as well as dirty and old ones. On a long term basis you can get something very
nice for less than 3500 RMB (1 bedroom + 1 living room, around 50 square meters).
* Dongsheng yuan (东升园), just south of Huaqing Jiayuan – this is where I found my
apartment. Prices are less expensive than Huaqing Jiayuan but more than DongWangZhuang.
* The old but cheap Dong Wang Zhuang (东王庄) north of BLCU (just north of Xijiao Binguan);
there are many offers to share a room with a Chinese family for around 1500 RMB (as far as I can
remember). Cheap price but quite old and small.
* Furun Jiayuan (富润家园) on Xueyan Lu (学院路), east BLCU: modern place and good
location for BLCU students; you have restaurants and shops around. Price should be around what
you get at Huaqing Jiayuan (3500 for a one bedroom apartment). Note than Xueyan Lu has other
compounds which I forgot the names. They also tend to build a lot in the north of it on a road
called XueqingLu (学清路) - but mind the distance to the universities !
* Qing feng hua jing yuan(清枫华景园) north of the Forestry University (林大) which is
itself north of BLCU – a quite remote place with not a great choice of restaurants nor shops
around; but quite nice apartments and cheaper than Huaqing.
* You can also try the Wuwoo web-site to locate on a map some of these compounds. There is also
this interesting map in Chinese. If you have time you could also Google the compounds names (in
Chinese or Pinyin) which will give you pictures and maps.
[1] Original thread on which this article is based.
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Contributors: ipsi(), gato, cdn_in_bj
Created by gato, 10th October 2007 at 12:09 PM
Last edited by ipsi(), 12th October 2007 at 03:31 AM
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