Another thread on apartments in Beijing

[Brian US]

***Just moved into an apartment in Dongwangzhuang, so I updated the accommodations thread.

Found the accommodations thread helpful but just a few questions about an apartment in the Wudaokourrr area.

My requirements:

Bathroom

Window

No bugs

No roommates (due to budget...now preferred)

A pole to wrap my scooter with 10m of chains/locks

Prefer to spend around 1500 a month

Looking to sign lease around February

I am attending BLCU for the next 4-5 years and figured I could get a better bang for my kuai away from all the universities (thinking 10-15 minute scooter ride). Seems most online listings are for several bedrooms and I am afraid of agencies after reading Roddy's experience.

Basic questions:

Is it common for agencies to charge one month's rent?

Is it common for landlords to give a deposit back on the condition of finding a replacement tenant?

Is my budget of 1500 realistic for a small studio?

Please explain public heating/electricity. A few people have told me that these utilities may be turned on/off randomly.

Finally, I would appreciate any tips on dealing with agencies. Seems Roddy summed up that websites are pretty useless and agencies are open to bargaining.

As my friends have higher standards I have not found much information on cheaper apartments. I figured I would turn to the endless stream of knowledge that is this forum before I start my search.

-thanks

Edited January 18, 2010 at 08:07 AM by Brian US

[roddy]

I think you're maybe being a bit ambitious. Maybe if you head north on line 13 you can get studios at those prices, but I suspect it might be a bit further than you want. Not sure though.

Agencies will normally look for a month's rent from somewhere - could be you, could be the landlord. The actual amount is also negotiable - I've seen it as low as two weeks, and I can imagine cases where it could go lower. Independent agents might be more flexible than chains.

If you're breaking a lease early, the landlord will likely feel justified in keeping your deposit. You might be able to get it back if you find him someone else to move in, entirely depends on the landlord really. If you've reached the end of the lease the landlord should give it back minus deductions, but this can be problematic. Really depends on the landlords levels of honesty.

Budget realistic? See above. At that level you'd get a nicer place sharing.

Heating is usually turned on about Nov 15 and off a few months later. You might have electric heaters or air-con units you can control yourself in addition. Electricity might go off now and then if they're working on it, but it's not common.

[Brian US]

After a reality check I think I am more open to having roommates as it will defiantly open up more options for my budget. I plan on being in Beijing long term, so my best bet is probably with locals/students.

My biggest fear stems from having roommates in the States, where it seems perfectly fine to ask, "hey man can you cover me for this month's rent? I'll hit you back when I get paid...when I find a job...with a bonus."

Still waiting for my share of the deposit (thanks David).

[roddy]

It's basically a case of 'nice, cheap, good location' - pick two. Housing around BLCU is, I think it's fair to say, pricier due to the sheer weight of foreign students who turn up at the same time of year desperate to find somewhere to live. Move north up line 13 and prices will drop pretty quickly, move in any other direction and they'll drop, albeit less quickly. Not sure how far a scooter can go in 15 minutes though.

This is right next to BLCU, but quite a bit out of your budget - actually more than twice your budget. This is more in your price range, although I suspect that might have been a bit of a lucky find.

Have a look on thebeijinger.com for roommates wanted ads - there's always someone going home and looking for someone to take over a room.

[Brian US]

I know many foreigners are in my boat with planning to be here long term. However, it seems most are in town for a one year study, so I am concerned about finding replacements. It would also be nice to force my beginner Chinese on some local roommates. Thebeijinger.com seems to have fewer and more expensive posts than say zhantai.com.

Just came across that website, thanks to the classifieds sticky in these forums, and a quick search comes up with over 50 listings for rooms under 1500 in the last three weeks in Wudaokourrr. I feel confident with a three month window to find something and I might just have to update the "My accommodations" thread with any luck.

Having a scooter is also very convenient and there is a direct correlation to distance covered and horn usage. Maybe I'll test this out down 城府路 and post my findings with charts.

Thanks again Roddy for your expert opinion!

[cui ruide]

I haven't heard positive things about zhantai. Specifically what;s advertised on there is really derelict in actuality. But it's worth a try and report back here your findings!

[Brian US]

With a little more research I have come across several promising personal ads of subletting, so anyone have tips in this area?

Do landlords typically care about sublets or is it common to just be added to the original lease?

How valid would a separate lease with my roommates be?

My main concern (probably overly paranoid) is paying 3 months + deposit and coming home with my stuff gone/someone else in my room.

Thanks again for all the replies!

[Brian US]

So I found out many interesting details in my pursuit for an apartment.

Most of the "private listings" online end up being agencies and it seems pretty easy to negotiate the finder's fee. I was surprised that you couldn't put down a deposit to reserve an apartment ahead of time. I was laughed at when I told places I wouldn't sign until next month/February. It also seems they only show apartments that are empty and must be signed within days. The classification of bedrooms may be problematic, as the first place advertised (3 bedroom 2 bath) ended up having three generations of family members in one bedroom.

I spent today looking around 东王庄 and found it hit or miss. One 2 bed for 3300 a month had all new appliances/furniture and was better than most of my apartments in the States. Yet, the next 2 bed for 3000 a month was literally falling apart.

I don't know if it is the bad agencies I have come across or if the whole renting process is just inefficient. Why don't landlords maintain a reliable leasing office of their own? Why not reserve a place with a simple deposit? Why not show pictures of a place instead of opening the door to a mystery apartment?

The current plan is probably to narrow down which neighborhoods will work out and continue my search next month when I am ready to sign.

[Genova]

Honestly I have no experience with this myself, but my girlfriend (native Chinese from BJ) told me about this in short, so here is what she told me.

- Agencies bassicly want one month's rent as pay, it is possible (probably hard) to bargain this.

- There are rooms available for 1500, but dont expect much for this really. (or expect to be on 10th floor with no elevator Well at least you'le get leg muscles hah.

upgrade to 2000, and if possible 2500. You can get some really nice rooms in Haidain for this price. This mostly includes gas/water/light/furniture. Not entirley sure about internet however.

- Owners mostly want (as you said) some bail, and yes this will be returned if you're room is being returned in the state it was, sometimes they might screw foreigners and say it has damage or stuff. So if you enter a room, Make sure to note the existing damage to the owner, to prevent this.

About bugs...well this really depends on the place I guess

[wanderlust]

Hi Brian US, it really is highly unlikely you'll be able to find a studio anywhere near campus (or in most nice areas in Beijing for that matter) for 1500, you may be able to find a room for that price but I expect it would be in an old apartment and in an older building and which will be generally dirty. I came here last Sept and had a chance to look at two 2-bedroom apartments, which went for 3300 to 3500 - they were quite old and had a general feeling of uncleanliness that I was immediately willing to up my budget, as when I come home I want to feel good about the place . I'm currently sharing a 3-bedroom apartment in FuRunJiaYuan (富润家园 ) with two others. I'm paying 1600 a month for my room (since it's really tiny) and my roommates are paying 2700 each for their room. It's a really nice apartment, completely furnished, and relatively new.

When we rented the place, we didn't pay any fee, just the one month deposit plus 5 months rent (how many months of rent you pay up front depends on your agreement with the landlord). The agency gets their fee from the landlord (one could say the landlord probably upped the price of the rent to cover the fee they have to pay to the agency). As a general rule, the landlords pay the agency the fees, not the tenants.

Utilities (at least the electricity) here in this complex are prepaid, from what I understand, the landlord puts a certain amount of money into the utility card (not sure what they call it), if the credit/money is used up before the landlord refills it, then the electricity automatically gets cut, which is what happened to us last last week. However one call to the landlord took care of it.

I only knew my roommates a day before we signed the lease for the apartment, I guess I'm lucky because I've never had a problem with money with them nor with stuff getting lost. We do not have separate leases with the landlord; however, my classmate lives in an apartment with five others I think, and they signed separate leases with the landlord, so that it doesn't matter if one roommate leaves, the rent will still be the same. I can ask my classmate about this place if you want, I know she's paying 2200RMB a month for her room, and the place is a bit old. It's somewhere in the HuaJingJiaYuan area.

Incidentally my roommates and I are leaving our apartment after this semester ends, probably early Feb We signed a one year lease however, so we'll see if we can get our deposit back if we find new tenants. In case you're interested in the place or want to know more about it, send me a PM.

[Brian US]

With a few friends I did meet with several agencies looking at 东王庄. For the most part they had agreed prior that they would settle on half a month finder's fee. Like Roddy said earlier, smaller agencies/chains may go for less. One had settled on a flat fee of 1000 kuai with the signing of 2/3 bedroom apartments 3000+ kuai. Though, I assume you could offer dinner to a passerby to check their building for openings.

I think I have settled on 东王庄 with a budget of around 1300. I noticed many listings online for random rooms in three bedroom apartments in the neighborhood for this price. I wasn't really impressed with apartments at the south gate of the Forestry University, but I do like the buildings north of the Agriculture University. For the extra distance I would only pay 1100. The first place with several families was only 1000 a month, but trying to study with a screaming baby put me off of the deal.

Isn't FuRunJiaYuan (富润家园 ) the nice pair of pink buildings across from the Golden Towers? The rooms are great, but a little out of my budget. The 1000 kuai place had a bucket with a hose for the kitchen sink, which I don't mind. I did turn down an offer to live with 7 Chinese students for 200-250 a month, as I am not keen on bunk beds. Yet, I would prefer to live with locals for the language/culture exchange (I know good experiences are not guaranteed).

[crisgee]

Seems like we're gonna be neighbors Brian. For me DongWangZhuang is nice place to live in, actually. We have small parks, our own supermarket, produce market, and several other shops by the gate near the Forestry Uni. And the street leading to that gate becomes a street food street at night. I live near the Wangzhuang Lu gate and there are a lot of restaurants along that road (Korean food mostly).

There's a lot of vacancies in my unit/gate (单元) now, so if anyone's looking, i can ask the people here for you.

[wanderlust]

Brian US, so you are paying the finder's fee, not the landlord? Yup, FuRunJiaYian is the group of peach (I call it peach ) and cream buildings across the Golden Towers. Pretty nice apartments. A lot of students live here. It's a 7min walk to BLCU's east gate. I would also go for having my own room..bunk beds are fine only if you're traveling or if you're staying just a short time.

[Brian US]

Brian US, so you are paying the finder's fee, not the landlord?

This all depends on how desperate I become. As I won't move out of the dorms until late January I don't plan on looking around for another couple weeks. Ideally I will try personal ads first to cut out the agencies. With no luck I will then try agencies, but refuse to pay more than half a month's rent in fee. Finally, if I am out of time I don't mind paying more.

My dream is to come across a nice Chinese couple to rent out a dirt cheap room. They insist on cooking me dinner so that after wards they can go over my homework. Of course they will keep a stock of beer in the fridge.

[amandagmu]

Ok, I think I finally found the appropriate thread for posting my questions!

I'm moving to Beijing for 10.5 months (or so) beginning around October 1 this year. I have read what everyone here wrote and still have a few questions:

1) should I correctly assume that, like when I moved to Taipei, I should book about a week in a hotel (or stay with a friend I hope!) upon arrival, near the area I want to live, and then spend the next several days scouring the online ads and agencies and seeing as many places as possible? Should I thus also scramble to get a sim card or public calling card ASAP for making this process easier? (If so, I am less-than-thrilled about this, but at least I know what I'm in for!)

By the way if any of you are available to host me for a few days or can offer advice on an affordable hotel likely to be able to take an advance booking (and actually reserve it and not "lose" the reservation) I would be most grateful. I'm a proud member of couchsurfing.org and I will cook or buy you dinner, drinks, etc in return.

2) Aside from the websites mentioned previously, can anyone recommend specific housing agencies to me (or any I should stay away from)? (e.g. again experience in Taipei dictates this question)

3) Here's what I need: 1 bedroom (preferably with a separate bedroom, not a studio), hopefully furnished with at least a bed and some basic furniture (couch/sofa and kitchen table?) for 3000-4000 RMB max per month.

More importantly: I want to be closer to the sport university, the Olympic area, or a green-ish area. I do not need or want to be in WuDaoKou or Haidian unless the other areas are out of my budget range (although they don't seem be from the listings I've seen).

4) Will most/all utilities be included in my rent payment? (e.g. I only paid electricity in Taipei, which was trivial even with the a/c blasting)

Thanks for all of your help/advice!

[roddy]

1) Yes, have at least a few days of accommodation arranged, and tell yourself that finding somewhere to stay is going to take a while - it's easy to get rushed and take somewhere that, on further consideration, isn't ideal. You're going to want a sim card anyway, so get one on day one - agencies will just giggle at you if you aren't contactable.

2) Big chain agencies include 我爱我家，链家地产，21st世纪。。。something or other. There are also any number of independents. Fees depend on who you use and where you stay, so on. There's always some negotiation, and I suspect maybe more with the independents where they don't have to pass a portion up to the head office. Best thing to do is to speak to as many as possible and see who seems easiest to deal with. Don't expect much though - it's perfectly common for the agent to not even have seen the place.

3) The Sports University and Olympic Park are fairly close together up on the fifth ring road. I'm pretty sure you'll be able to find what you want in your budget, but I don't know that area so can't make any specific suggestions. Have a look for listings for 上地，清河，回龙观 - should be more or less right I think. Google Earth can be very useful for getting an idea of how much greenery there is around and spotting running tracks (anything on a university campus is likely to be open to the public, but not at schools.)

4) No. Most likely electricity will be prepaid, you'll have a smart card which you put credit on at a bank and then insert into the meter to update. Water and gas will be metered, you'll get bills to take to the bank and pay. Phone / ADSL can be paid for via mobile-phone type recharge cards.

There might be possibilities here (not sure if that URL will work, but if not poke around the website a bit.)

Edited May 4, 2010 at 05:21 AM by roddy

[amandagmu]

那是很好！谢谢 Roddy.

21st century existed in Taipei too. They charge a steep fee from what I remember.

Will definitely check out the neighborhoods you mentioned. I was poking around the satellite map yesterday and when I zoomed in to look at the neighborhoods some of the names and such "disappeared" until I zoomed back out.... it was a bit...

Anyways, I did notice a plethora of running tracks up in the area you're describing outside the fifth ring road...

And yeah, I was laughed at by people in Taipei before I got my sim card. Guess that'll be the first chore after I check-in to my hotel.

[jgruin]

Hi there all,

Thanks to everyone for all of the useful information. I'm coming to BLCU for the summer to do two short courses back to back: June 24 - August 27, and I wonder if anyone has any advice on whether it is feasible and/or a good idea to sublet an apartment room (or a studio for that matter) for the 10 weeks that I will be in Beijing? I've looked at the threads on the housing at BLCU (which doesn't sound like it would be particularly amazing, even if not too bad), and friends who've been to BLCU have told me to get an apartment rather than stay in the dorms. It seems like I could sublet a room for 2500 kuai or so - any reason why this would not work out?

Thanks

Julian