5 Steps to Renting an Apartment in China

Having tallied six apartments in three different Chinese cities, the apartment hunt has become one of my least favorite but most fundamental routines here in China. Why so important? A great apartment is the launchpad from which you can set your life hurtling towards a bright, glimmering future. Misfire on your living situation and fling yourself into the dark, cold outer reaches of a Chinese city’s orbital system.

Abstractions aside, the difficulties of searching for the perfect apartment in China leave many disheartened, dejected, and hungover. This article will present a few steps to making the process a lot easier.

Before scanning this article to glean the good bits, I’m going to shout out the most important segment: you don’t need an agent. Following these steps will help you avoid pesky agent fees, wasted time, and the despair of feeling that your dream apartment is lost in the galactic wastelands of China’s real estate market.

Renting in China
You probably won’t find a place like this in China

Step 1: Define Your Criteria

Do you want to live around other foreigners? Do you want to live in a quiet part of town? What about a student area? Are you trying to be able to stumble home from your favorite bar? Be honest with yourself here. Whatever your criteria is, being clear about it from the get go makes looking for apartments infinitely simpler.  I remember I wanted my first apartment back in Suzhou to be, quote, shitty, end quote. I wanted to pay the minimum, live on my own, and “eat the bitters.” That cold, dark place I described in the first paragraph is a very real, sad apartment in Suzhou, China.

If cash is your major limitation, defining how much you are personally willing to spend will narrow down your locations, roommate options, and quality flexibility. If a prime location—inside 2nd ring road on the south side of the city, bonus pts. for subway access—is your priority, than that will tell you right out that you’re going to be forking out a bit more coin.

This time around in Chengdu, location and price were my biggest limits. I wanted to find a place by Sichuan University, as I’ve found that student areas have cheaper, better food and a good amount to do. Also, there are normally higher levels of standard Putonghua (standard Mandarin) in the area due to diverse studentry and higher levels of education. Price was a big issue because I was dead set on living with my roommate who wanted to be saving a healthy chunk of his money. Quality-wise, my only requirement was that my room have wooden floors and their are no showers in the kitchen (a real situation).

Wanting to live in a prime spot and spend less cash usually equates to living in an old building,  a walk up. Not the end of the world, but it won’t have the modern flair of some of the pricier places. I live in one now and can say you save more cash than you forfeit quality.

Renting in China
My wonderful home and wonderful roommate

Step 2: Ask Knowledgeable People

Bring your criteria to the foreigner who has been in Chengdu back since the Three Kingdoms era. That guy, or girl, will be able to synthesize in two minutes what hours of online research will barely begin to unearth. Chengdu is replete with long term expats who are just waiting to tell you their opinion about most everything regarding Chengdu life (read: all the other authors on this site).  Take them up on it, and be specific with your criteria.

Where to find that keeper of secrets? Chengdu Living Forum is the easiest way to do it. Post criteria, keep it simple, offer a beer as a bribe. Couldn’t be simpler.

Step 3: China Friends, Assemble!

Apartment calculus is defined by a linear relationship: the more folks you have the sweeter deal you’ll get. Here, roommates are the primary price liberator. They make most every location in Chengdu within your budget.

For example, I am renting with two other people. Our apartment is nicer, bigger, and less expensive per person by 350 kuai per month (4,200 kuai per year = 4,200 bowls of rice, 2,100 lamb skewers, 280 lunches, or 2 times holding a panda) than my friends renting with only one person. If you’re looking to live alone, prepare to pay the price.

My roommate and I decided to go for a three bedroom, called tào s?n (??) in Chinese. We found that the price and quality of a three bedroom place versus a two bedroom place was nearly identical despite having the extra room.

If you’re just looking for a hassle free single room—known in Chinese as a dàn ji?n (??)—that is decently decorated and has wifi, uoku.com is an excellent option. They have professionally decorated and furnished single rooms as a part of a larger apartment. Your roommates will be strangers—mostly students—but the prices are great and the quality is unparalleled for the price point.

Renting in China
Chinese students live in close quarters, but you don’t have to

Step 4: Scout Online

Use two or three sites to save time and check out the neighborhoods you’ve heard about.

Two of the best sites are ganji.com and 58.com, which are a great way to feel out the price to quality mix of any area you’re interested in living in. They unfortunately do not have English versions. Even if you cannot read Chinese, this is a great time to get a Chinese friend or a Chinese speaking foreign friend to point out the basics of what each section means. It will save you hours upon hours of wandering around the city, as all Chinese cities are bigger and less convenient than you think.

Fortunately, the sites are all standardized so if your friend can show you how to read one posting you’ll be able to read all of them. I personally prefer ganji.com because it posts the area of an apartment on the search findings page.

If you are only looking for a single room and uoku.com is not producing the results you’re looking for, these sites also have shared hé z? (??) postings. That means an apartment is renting out one of their single room. Obviously, engage at your own discretion.

The best part about these sites is you can filter location, price range, number of bedrooms, as well as “personal” listings, called gè rén (??), which are those without agent fees. Agent fees typically run you month’s rent, so you’ll want to avoid those if possible.

The worst part about these sites is that it is difficult to quality control. I spent three days looking at 10 different apartments that I had found on these sites. None of them were quite what they posted.

Step 5: Talk to Security Guards

Here is the fun part. Hop on a bike and go directly to where you want to live. Do not talk to any agents in the area. That’s right, skip the agent (??) and go straight for the security guards (??). If the above sites didn’t produce results in terms of a place you actually want to rent—they didn’t for me—do not believe that an agent is your only next option.

The move is to take your criteria, go to your selected location, and choose the complex that you like. Best here is to take a bike or rent one (talk to the kind fellas at Natooke for rentals) and tool around your neighborhood until you find two or three complexes that would suit you.

Renting in China
Bathroom, kitchen and shower, together.

Once you know where you want to live, walk straight up to the security guard and tell him you are looking for an apartment. The first time I did this I was a bit hestitant. Not this guy’s job, right? Sort of. It’s not officially on the books, but the speed and glee with which these guys respond to these sorts of requests confirms it is very much within their area of expertise. These guys will serve as a sort of agent and will usually be happy to help.

There are three upsides:

  1. You choose your exact location. Agents will run you around inconvenient neighborhoods, noisy thoroughfares, and more or less the dregs of the apartment supply that they are trying to foist on someone who they might assume knows less. Going straight to the security guard allows you to choose the exact, precise location of your new dream home. For me, this is in a quiet back alley by a busy student street lined with old school mahjong parlors where I play at least once a week.
  2. Security guards ask for less cash than agents. Agents always ask for a month’s rent. There are ways around this as many people will triumphantly exhort. Those ways don’t always work, even if you speak Chinese. Guards ask for about 500 kuai depending on how green you look.
  3. You get to look at undervalued apartments. Agent overseen apartments are always exceedingly professionally priced. Because agents get a month’s rent, they always skew prices higher. We skipped the agent and dealt with a lovely landlord. She was offering a three bedroom 105 square meter apartment with three air conditioners, fully loaded and functional kitchen and bathrooms, and a quiet, safe location walking distance from many of the major hangouts in the city. All of this was for 2100, a price that would have been grossly distorted had an agent got a chance to manipulate it.

Now you should be able to find the apartment you want at a price you like in the exact location and apartment complex of your dreams. Don’t be intimidated.

If you have any tips or experiences to add, I would love to hear them in the comments below. Happy hunting!

51 thoughts on “5 Steps to Renting an Apartment in China”

  1. I remember my first few times looking for apartments in Chengdu, constantly getting the run-around from local agents. It took a few years of moving to different places to learn the process and discover where all the potential problems emerge. Thanks for writing this and giving newcomers to Chengdu an easy place to start.

    I moved to a new place, in a different part of Chengdu, every 6 months for the first 2 years that I was here. After I found a place that met all my search criteria (located in Yulin, 2+ bedrooms, private rooftop, rent under 2500) I never moved again.

    But if I were to find a new place now, I would mostly likely skip directly to the internet search on 58.com unless I had a specific idea of where I wanted to live. I know that one complex down the street from me (Tianfu Gardens) has some really nice places, like this one recently posted in the forum: Room for Rent in Yulin

    I would be missing that rooftop, though… that strikes me as an expat amenity for sure.

    Reply
    • Glad it struck a chord. I feel like most folks who have staked their claim in China have been through this stuff a few times over.

      The rooftop is the clincher. My apartment is glaringly rooftop-less. It is an expat must-have that I wasn’t able to snag.

      My issue with 58.com is that it doesn’t list square meters on the search page, which, for me, was really important. We were looking to sacrifice quality for size since I work at home and needed a spot for a makeshift office.

      I agree that, without the specific locale in mind, start by scanning online for deals. Yulin in particular and the whole wuhouci (武侯祠, if anyone wants to check the site) area is surprisingly cheap, especially compared to the southeast. I think that can be attributed to no subway?

      Reply
    • Hey Charlie, we are two french that are trying to find a appartment in chengdu. As you seem to having experienced this and knowing quite well Chengdu, would you care to help us.

      Wechat id : jziani

      It would be nice from you. Thanks for you time.

      Reply
  2. Great article. I’d like to add one of my personal favorite sites, http://www.haozu.com. This is my personal favorite because it provides pictures, and it’s easier to find those unfurnished flats. Unfurnished flats are dirt cheap, and you can buy whatever you need. When I was “hiding from the fuzz due to visa situation”, I had discovered a 900rmb, 100 square meter, unfurnished flat in the northern Baoshan district of Shanghai. Since I was down on my luck, the bed made me itch, I made a bed in a clothes heap on the floor with a fan to keep me cool. Unfortunately for me, I had used an agent. When the fuzz came knocking for registration (thank you security for having a big mouth), I refused to open my door. Their next option, talk to the agent whom had a copy of my passport on file. Lesson learned, agents are an expensive waste, and they’ll rat you out the minute the men in blue walk in their office.

    Reply
    • Devon, that is a wild story. Piece by piece:

      First, I’d never come across that site, but then I always explicitly look for fully furnished places. I ran this article by a friend and he also brought up another 5 that I’d never seen. I think there are a lot that are province specific or at least provincially popular.

      The unfurnished angle is also a cool one. I usually try to minimize accumulation, but 900 rmb for 100 square meters in Baoshan is pretty nuts. My friend just payed 2300 for a 20 meter room there.

      Sorry to hear about the bed, the luck, the agent, and the door-knocking fuzz. Next article I write, I’ll make sure to add “narc” as another potential downside for hiring an agent!

      Reply
      • The important thing to remember when renting a place is to consider WHAT DO YOU REALLY WANT?

        If you get a place with tv, internet, bedding, etc…you’re paying a high price each month for those things. IF something breaks, you’re accountable for it. Even if it’s just a dead light bulb.

        IF you get an unfurnished flat, then there’s less responsibility, you can buy your own things (do you really need a tv when you can watch all your favorite shows online?). The other cool thing about unfurnished apartments is you can negotiate for a long term lease, demand dirt cheap rent, and explain that you plan to paint/decorate the place. IF you do this, the landlord would be happy that you are incurring the costs of decoration. They’d be more than happy to receive back their flat at the end of the contract in a better condition than when they rented it out. Who wouldn’t love renting something, and getting back 10x the value? I used to do that kind of business a few years ago. Subletting is a fun opportunity to try.

        Reply
        • All of this adds up. The x factor here seems to be the commitment to long term. One of the issues I had in Suzhou was I kept expecting to leave, so I never signed longer than six months. (I was only there for a year). Once you start getting into long term leases, decoration options, renovation options, and price negotiation power all seem to fall into line. I know for sure if I had gone 2 year lease on my current place instead of 1 I could have gotten it down to 1900 for a 3 bedroom fully (FULLY) furnished 100 square meter flat.

          I’m sold on this unfurnished idea. Next time, that is the move.

          Reply
  3. I always used the guards of the complex when I went searching. And I make it a point to get in tight with the guards of any complex I move into, I’ve only had to rely on them to pull my ass out of the fire twice that I can remember, but it was worth it. For the little things really, like never messing with you or your buddies when you are coming home late or whatever.

    保安 are cool.

    Reply
  4. Great article! If you do decide to go with a real-estate agent, make sure to be insistent about your criteria, otherwise they will end up showing you a bunch of junk and wasting your time.

    Reply
    • Could not agree more. On top of that, even when you are insistent on critera they will still show you a bunch of junk and waste your time. My first apartment in Suzhou I fell prey to this. Coupled with my miserable fresh-off-the-plane Chinese, the onslaught of junk they showed me ended up wearing me down. I caved and lived in a hole. Don’t let the junk show make you believe there is only junk!

      Reply
  5. Wow, sounds like you got a sick deal. I concur that using an agent definitely isn’t the way to go if you’re looking for a great bargain.

    It’s also important to be able to negotiate with the landlord. Especially, if you don’t go through an agent the lease terms can be very fuzzy. You have to be very direct with your demands. Things that need to be fixed, who will cover the costs for repairs, whether you require additional or newer appliances, whether you can trash old ugly Chinese furniture are some examples.

    Reply
  6. You are definitely right about getting a better deal by living with other people.

    In addition to the fact that it is probably a healthy socializing experience to try living in close quarters with another human at some point in your life, there are clear economic befits in the real estate market.

    You get more space per person per dollar when you rent with more people… but you also open yourself up to the possibility of renting more unique units. There are just not many special one bedroom places. Most of the quirky, unconventional, great-deal places seem to be 2 or 3 bedroom spots. When you look at 1 bedroom places, it is a lot of the same thing in varying themes.

    Reply
    • This is so true, and is the reason why I’ve had a roommate for the majority of my time in Chengdu. It’s really an enriching experience if you have good Chinese friends and you save money.

      Another thing I’ve noticed in Chengdu is that there’s a price threshold for luxury and comfort. What I mean is, if you spend 1,500 rmb you can get a decent 1-bedroom place. If you up that to 2,000 rmb you can get a much more comfortable 2-bedroom. In the 2,500 rmb range and you’re in serious luxury. Spending an extra 1k rmb makes a larger difference than the price alone would suggest. Obviously this depends on location and other factors, but in general you get so much more in the 2k range than you do just around 1,500 rmb.

      Reply
  7. Thanks for this article! I am moving to Chengdu in a few months, and I am really nervous about all these little details. Articles like this make it feel a lot less frightening.

    Now, if I can just find some good information on actual costs of things in Chengdu, that would be awesome!

    Reply
  8. “my only requirement was that my room have wooden floors and their are no showers in the kitchen”

    Should be “there”, not their.

    Reply
  9. Never thought of security guards as replacements for agents. Lesson learned. The good thing is I will be in position to test it in just three months from today. So, wish me luck!

    Reply
  10. Looks like I’m a bit late here, but I did want to say that this was very informative and fun to read! Quick question – Do all apartment complexes in Chengdu have security guards?! If so, that’s fantastic!

    Reply
    • Yeah, pretty much every apartment complex has “guards”, though they range from serious body guards to old men wearing uniforms, with the majority being the latter. Depends on what kind of complex you live in though.

      Reply
  11. Hey i must be late too but i try.

    Actually we are two french students that are going to study in Chengdu for 10 months and are looking for an apartment.

    We look for a two bedrooms apartment oui a living room and a kitchen. We can afford to pay 2600 RM(flexible to 3000). We prefer to stay near our campus (SWUFE) which is in the area of : Qingyang district (Guanghuacun street)

    We are not speaking Chinese. Would anyone mind to give us a help

    We chat id to contact us: jziani

    Thank you in advance

    Reply
  12. The information in your article is really helpful! I’m looking at moving to Chengdu in August, 2016. I want to live within walking/bike ride distance of my job. And I definitely want to live as cheaply/comfortably as possible. The tip about going directly to the area I want to live and approach a security guard is a great tip!! … any tips on a safe way to find a roommate? I’m not opposed to sharing as long as I can have my own bathroom… is that realistic on my part?

    Reply
      • Hi, Charlie! Thanks for the reply. I’m not sure if I’m missing something, but I don see a link to your forum. Can you include it in a direct reply?

        Thanks again for your valuable insight!!

        If I could suggests a topic that would be helpful to read about… I’ve read some recent articles that have me very concerned about air quality and possible environmental concerns in living quarters. Carbon monoxide poisoning in living quarters, etc. If you have any knowledge/insight to share on these topics,it would be VERY helpful!

        Best regards,
        Rachel

        Reply
  13. Have you guys ever experienced housing discrimination here in China? Like, what if you encounter an agent/homeowner who doesn’t want to rent to a foreigner? What are some ways to circumvent/handle this kind of discriminatory situation?

    Reply
  14. Thanks for the article. Pretty useful information. I have a question. How to communicate with the apartments’ owners if I don’t speak any Chinese. I am looking for an apartment in Suzhou. I found some interesting relevant ones in 58.com but I don’t know what to do next. I suppose there are lots of cheaters in the website as well. How to safe yourself from scammers? Any tips?

    Reply
    • I would advise getting a Chinese friend or colleague to help you out. Being able to communicate with your landlord or negotiate housing arrangement will be pretty important. Good luck!

      Reply
  15. Our daughter has rented a flat in Shanghai with a years contract, she now has to return urgently to UK, will she be liable for the years rental.

    Reply
  16. Thanks for sharing your experience. I have been teaching English in China for 12 years but forced to retire this year (65). I have a Chinese wife and am moving to Kunming next month. Good idea about skipping the agent, using guards and considering unfurnished. Will try to post of our experiences too.

    Reply

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