When I arrived in Shanghai, I asked some of my friends here how I could find a good appartment to rent. Most of them recommended to look for apartments at Craigslist, Smartshanghai or Cityweekend. All these recommendations were a great source to get aquatinted with the housing market in Shanghai from a foreigner perspective. I listed the places and contacted some (English speaking) agents to see the apartments.

A very convenient but expensive way to find a apartment, I discovered later. Instead of taking the obvious path, I’d recommend you to checkout the local websites instead, it’s less hard then you think. With some help from Laurence, I used a Chinese website called Anjuke to enquire about the place I was interested in, and found out that it was advertised – in Chinese – for just 75% of the price that my English agent proposed.

As artonym.com puts it, when you use the local websites:

1. you will get a much wider range of choice
2. you can be a lot more promiscuous in your search by engaging several agents to look for a place for you at the same time
3. you can get the local rate; not the you’re-not-Chinese-so-I’m-going-to-assume-you’re-loaded rate

1/2 Start by asking where you want to live

Find the location, then find a reasonable place within your budget. Using the map, you can pinpoint the place you want to live and see what is available.

2/2 Translate the details and visit some places to get an idea

When you find a place, you swing the URL through Google translate to get the specifics, in the language you prefer.

I was fortunate enough to have a Chinese collegue helping me making the calls and visiting the compounds. After seeing almost 10 apartments this way, I can tell you that the pictures and text do not always reflect on what you will see. I have seen some crack-holes this week, some with the fresh smell of bug spray, facing a building being constructed at just a few meters distance, not a nice place to relax.

tips:

Some seeking tips for people looking for a place here, mentioned by the same post:

1. Don’t be seduced by subway-adjacent properties. For a city that likes to bill itself as a kick-ass metropolis, Shanghai’s metro shuts down at a ridiculously early hour (10pm on average). Instead, find a property near the end/beginning of a popular bus route.
2. Electricity is expensive in Shanghai – if you leave the a/c on – eg in summer months its a necessity, expect bills of 500 RMB / 50 euro upwards.
3. Make sure that the landlord is allowed to rent the place out. Make sure that the name on the rental contract matches the name on the Landlords ID.

Shanghai housing bubble

I was stroling around Pudong yesterday and got annoyed by the amount of leaflets that were handed out to me. Instead of the expected massage or rolex offers, they turned out to be compound brochures. While housing prices in my home country have gone south, Jian Shuo Wang writes that the Shanghai real estate market prizes are still rising, in contrary to expectations of financial experts and Chinese government.
“A recent report I read from the Youth Daily, the second hand house volume in the first half year has been higher than the last year the whole year.
Possible reasons are:

1. Loans and Morgages are loosened. Most of the restrictions on second and third house loans are lifted, and people can get loans as they wish.
2. The expectation for large scale RMB inflation.”

I bet this affects the renters market as well. While my assumption was that with the current crisis, it would be a renters market, perhaps it would be a different case for Shanghai. Though, don’t get boggled up with that assumption, as there is plenty, plenty of nice apartments available.

My apartment

The hotel was nice to stay for a week, but it’s still a hotel. I found a decent place to live, close to my office, and I am moving in this Wednesday. While settled down in a comfortable place, I am prepared to dedicate myself to my job to the fullest. Good times!