real estate agents' commission (Beijing)

[huaqiao06]

Guidebooks (and this website's wiki) say the landlord pays. However I found in most cases (flat-hunting around Beijing Normal Uni and the Wudaokou subway station) I was expected to pay the agent one month or half a month's rent as commission.

Is this other people's experience?

Admittedly I only looked at the bottom end of the market (under 2500RMB, single room within multiroom apartments).

Whether one looks on the street or the internet, most ads seem to be posted by agents rather than landlords/tenants.

[hairyleprechaun]

I had a similar experience with having to pay a commission of one month's rent when looking for apartments in the Wudaokou/Zhongguancun area in 2006. Though, one time I was able to find the landlord personally and therefore I was not charged a one month fee for finding the apartment.

[cdn_in_bj]

Yeah, common practise here is that the renter gets stuck with paying the agency fee. Sometimes you can negotiate a discount with the agent. Other times, you may be given a choice of not paying the agency fee, in which cass the landlord would pay it, but in exchange the monthly rent will be a bit higher to compensate. With the net effect being that your rental costs end up being the same amount over the lease period, but your initial outlay is less (even considering that your deposit will be higher due to the higher monthly rent).

[self-taught-mba]

Very common. Over 6000 or so and the landlord pays. Same for commercial real-estate space.

Agents are often very shady, but 90% of the ads are from them.

Also common to have a minimum 6 mos. lease and pay deposit plus the first 3 mos. rent at once. (so 4 months rent in total)

Many people get royally screwed this way.

[huaqiao06]

I found around the WDK station plenty of landlords were willing to sign a 3 month contract, but they always asked for the standard 3months up-front plus deposit, and usually you had to live with them.

I'm paying 1400RMB/month plus half a month's rent as deposit, gave another 700 to the agent as commission. Shareflat with 2 Chinese girls 10 minutes walk from the WDK station, on the whole it worked out ok...

suppose I could have bargained over the commission. But it's a seller's market right now, I'd already seen a few places snatched from under my nose

[imron]

Don't forget to do a write up in this thread

[alexma]

as Chinese, I thought most lanlords do not speak English, so ask some agent for help. be honest, it is not fair to both of lanlord and tenant. but, what can u and they do. as my advise, u can buy a local beijing new paper, or a website and find a good price room for ur guys. good luck,