Renting an Apartment

[gato]

Here are some key things to know about how to rent an apartment (aka flat) in China. [footnote]Original thread on which this article is based.[/footnote].

[h2]Know the Market[/h2]

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.

[h2]Scouting the Location[/h2]

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!).

[h2]Things to Consider about the Building/Compound[/h2]

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.

[h2]Real Estate Agencies[/h2]

• 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.

[h2] Contract, Fees, And Payment[/h2]

• 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.

[h2]Location-Specific Information[/h2][h3]Wudaokou, Beijing[/h3]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.