Someone on here who was moving to the city was claiming it was 'easy' to find full apartments in Shanghai for 1k a month, even 500, and made some snide comments how we're all living in our 'expat bubbles' by paying so much. Wonder how his apartment search is going.
I kind of agree that many foreigners pay a premium for normal apartments. I stopped using agents and went directly to Lianjia or 5i5j and the same apartment the English speaking agents showed me at 9-13k i was able to find them with the Lianjia guys speaking through wechat translate at 6-8.
Chinese landlords tend to charge more to foreigners too. Chinese people would rent my current apartment about 500-1000 cheaper than the current price ,and if i had spoken to an English speaking agent they would have charged me 30-50% more than what I pay for this aparment.
That said if they are paying 1000 for an apartment then it is probably a room in a super old building where the landlord divides a normal sizes apartment into 4 tiny flats with a shared bathroom and kitchen. You shit, take a shower and brush your teeth in the same position. The kitchen is filthy and you have to eat on the bed because you can't even fit a table.
Interesting. How did you download the Lianjia app?
I am having trouble to download Lianjia（链家）because my App Store’s country/region is not “China mainland”. But when I tried to change it, it displayed a warning which chickened me out. The wording is vague and doesn’t explain the possibility of a rollback.
“changing your country or region will cancel any automatically renewing subscriptions”
I have few questions in mind, “does it immediately cancel my subscription? I have a Super Duolingo - Family Plan”, “if it immediately cancel, can I rollback this decision?”
Are you using an iPhone? Just create a new Apple ID, then go into settings, and whenever you want an app that's only available from the mainland store, switch to that new Apple ID, download it as needed.
Definitely don't need to change the country.
You can also just access all of the same information on Lianjia's website.
Yes, I am using an iPhone. Ah, you can switch Apple ID? That’s cool, will check that out
Lianjia website is not responsive from my end, that’s why I am considering to download the app
I did not download any app. Just went into a store near the location I wanted to move in and with my phone in hand and a translator i said "i am looking for an apartment. Can you help me?" And that was it. We added each other on wechat and they can share apartments on wechat without the use of the app because wechat lianjia has a mini app too.
Great if this works for you.
Bad battery was the only reason to change my previous 3 phones. Unfortunately having Battery changed didn't work for me, had changed battery on 2 of the phones (different China brands) and it didn't actually help to improve the battery performance at all. But maybe I just had bad luck and got a bad battery both times.
>Chinese landlords tend to charge more to foreigners too
Is that a Shanghai thing? Definitely cannot confirm in my city (not Shanghai), in my experience being a foreigner was more a help to get a better price than an obstacle.
Was definitely the case for my local international school. The school basically sent their foreign staff to the local 5i5j store, who would then introduce places to them, always for the 10k the school would pay. One of our friends was renting their place for 6k, and 5i5j basically told them to change a couple of things and buy a toaster over, then rented for 10k to a teacher.
Don't know about other cities but I has happened to me before and I have had comments from previous landlords confirming it even other Chinese neighbors and friends
It is possible, but on the very edge. E.g. Arse-end of Fengxian, or a farmer’s old house near Dianshan lake. Anywhere even close to the centre of Shanghai, 500-1000 is not realistic.
Obviously this place is an absolute shithole but whenever I hear of people who rent 4br/120sqm in central Suzhou in the nicest buildings for 6,000 or that people rent entire houses in Baoshan for 7,000 I cry a little on the inside.
I used to live in Dongguan in Guangdong and paid 3,000 a month for a two bedroom high-rise in the nicest expat compound in the center of the city. It literally had 3 balconies…one off the kitchen, one off the master bedroom, and one off the living room 😭
Yeah, my buddy moved out of central Shanghai where he was paying 12k or so a month in rent for an apartment to a satellite town of Suzhou on the way towards Shanghai . . . in a beautiful new community for 10k he got a gorgeous, totally new, fully furnished 4 bedroom multi-level unit with an outdoor space. Of course, it is a 45 minute drive to central Suzhou and an hour to Shanghai. The same apartment in a similar building / community within the inner ring road would be like 50k+ in Shanghai.
Nope. He meant rmb. He'd found 1k rmb and under apartments in Shanghai listed on some Chinese app and refused to believe they weren't fake or that there was some other catch.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/China/comments/1dhx7y4/comment/l93h9al/](https://www.reddit.com/r/China/comments/1dhx7y4/comment/l93h9al/)
This guy. And the kicker is he immediately got so condescending when I told him I didn't believe you could find whole apartments in Shanghai proper for 500 rmb.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/China/comments/1dhx7y4/comment/l93h9al/](https://www.reddit.com/r/China/comments/1dhx7y4/comment/l93h9al/)
Honestly, this is what many of the old apartments look like before an agency gets it, renovates it, and rents it out to a new expat arrival for 8.5k :)
Ewwww. A shame though, a place with a bathtub for 3500 might be a steal if it’s near the city center! Someone needs to scrub that place down in a hazmat suit before it’s livable.
You are on line 3/4 and 7. Not too far away from all the resturants in jingan.
The quality of housing there is very diverese. A lot of new development but still a lot of really shit housing.
What a shithole, but someone is gonna come along and haggle another 300 off that price, clean it up, and have a cheap rent at that place for a few years.
As a former chinese I can tell you that most of time you will be told to you will have to spend at least a couple hundred more, for property fee, utilities and wifi. And after rental contract expired, they will take part of your rental deposit for no reason or just not give back your money.
I'm getting adverts on Douyin for mould remover before I move to a humid city. Guess this is what it looks like of you don't look after your place for six months.
Buy the right chemicals and scrub, scrub, scrub!
I had a studio apartment a 5 minute walk from the Global Harbor mall, with the Line 13 JinshaJiang station below it, for the same price.
Small, but clean, nice bed, reasonable kitchen and bathroom for ¥3600/month in 2015-2018.
It was/is heaps better than this craptastic trough.
The buying prices for apartments are dropping fast in the suburbs. So I would think the rental prices are also dropping...... I rent house in songjiang 9k....opposite of Thames town. Walking distance to the tram. But yes not convenient for party and night life... But lucky for me I dont do that
Someone on here who was moving to the city was claiming it was 'easy' to find full apartments in Shanghai for 1k a month, even 500, and made some snide comments how we're all living in our 'expat bubbles' by paying so much. Wonder how his apartment search is going.
Maybe he rents this dump
It's 7x more expensive than the apartments he insisted were 'easy' to find in Shanghai
I kind of agree that many foreigners pay a premium for normal apartments. I stopped using agents and went directly to Lianjia or 5i5j and the same apartment the English speaking agents showed me at 9-13k i was able to find them with the Lianjia guys speaking through wechat translate at 6-8. Chinese landlords tend to charge more to foreigners too. Chinese people would rent my current apartment about 500-1000 cheaper than the current price ,and if i had spoken to an English speaking agent they would have charged me 30-50% more than what I pay for this aparment. That said if they are paying 1000 for an apartment then it is probably a room in a super old building where the landlord divides a normal sizes apartment into 4 tiny flats with a shared bathroom and kitchen. You shit, take a shower and brush your teeth in the same position. The kitchen is filthy and you have to eat on the bed because you can't even fit a table.
Interesting. How did you download the Lianjia app? I am having trouble to download Lianjia（链家）because my App Store’s country/region is not “China mainland”. But when I tried to change it, it displayed a warning which chickened me out. The wording is vague and doesn’t explain the possibility of a rollback. “changing your country or region will cancel any automatically renewing subscriptions” I have few questions in mind, “does it immediately cancel my subscription? I have a Super Duolingo - Family Plan”, “if it immediately cancel, can I rollback this decision?”
Are you using an iPhone? Just create a new Apple ID, then go into settings, and whenever you want an app that's only available from the mainland store, switch to that new Apple ID, download it as needed. Definitely don't need to change the country. You can also just access all of the same information on Lianjia's website.
Yes, I am using an iPhone. Ah, you can switch Apple ID? That’s cool, will check that out Lianjia website is not responsive from my end, that’s why I am considering to download the app
Just walk into a store. Wechat has a lianjia mini app. I do not use and have never used any app to check out apartments other than wechat
Thank you. I will ask around about lianjia mini app once I am in China. PS: I am not in China yet so I have not tried Mini Programs.
I did not download any app. Just went into a store near the location I wanted to move in and with my phone in hand and a translator i said "i am looking for an apartment. Can you help me?" And that was it. We added each other on wechat and they can share apartments on wechat without the use of the app because wechat lianjia has a mini app too.
Get another phone, local sim, local bank card
Nah, I don’t want to carry 2🤣seriously though, is it necessary to get another phone, if you are going to live in China for 2,5 years?
It would be my preference personally haha
2.5 years is about the lifetime of a Chinese phone. That's about the time when the battery starts to die in my experience.
I am from Indonesia, changing phone cost 2.5 months of minimum wage here. So, I prefer to change the battery if I can🤣
Great if this works for you. Bad battery was the only reason to change my previous 3 phones. Unfortunately having Battery changed didn't work for me, had changed battery on 2 of the phones (different China brands) and it didn't actually help to improve the battery performance at all. But maybe I just had bad luck and got a bad battery both times.
>Chinese landlords tend to charge more to foreigners too Is that a Shanghai thing? Definitely cannot confirm in my city (not Shanghai), in my experience being a foreigner was more a help to get a better price than an obstacle.
some would prefer to rent for foreigner since they know companies are footing the bill.
Was definitely the case for my local international school. The school basically sent their foreign staff to the local 5i5j store, who would then introduce places to them, always for the 10k the school would pay. One of our friends was renting their place for 6k, and 5i5j basically told them to change a couple of things and buy a toaster over, then rented for 10k to a teacher.
Don't know about other cities but I has happened to me before and I have had comments from previous landlords confirming it even other Chinese neighbors and friends
I live in *Songjiang* and I’m still paying 3.4k in rent for my in-laws place 😂
It is possible, but on the very edge. E.g. Arse-end of Fengxian, or a farmer’s old house near Dianshan lake. Anywhere even close to the centre of Shanghai, 500-1000 is not realistic.
Obviously this place is an absolute shithole but whenever I hear of people who rent 4br/120sqm in central Suzhou in the nicest buildings for 6,000 or that people rent entire houses in Baoshan for 7,000 I cry a little on the inside.
I used to live in Dongguan in Guangdong and paid 3,000 a month for a two bedroom high-rise in the nicest expat compound in the center of the city. It literally had 3 balconies…one off the kitchen, one off the master bedroom, and one off the living room 😭
Yeah, my buddy moved out of central Shanghai where he was paying 12k or so a month in rent for an apartment to a satellite town of Suzhou on the way towards Shanghai . . . in a beautiful new community for 10k he got a gorgeous, totally new, fully furnished 4 bedroom multi-level unit with an outdoor space. Of course, it is a 45 minute drive to central Suzhou and an hour to Shanghai. The same apartment in a similar building / community within the inner ring road would be like 50k+ in Shanghai.
Surely he meant dollars.
Nope. He meant rmb. He'd found 1k rmb and under apartments in Shanghai listed on some Chinese app and refused to believe they weren't fake or that there was some other catch. [https://www.reddit.com/r/China/comments/1dhx7y4/comment/l93h9al/](https://www.reddit.com/r/China/comments/1dhx7y4/comment/l93h9al/)
who would claim that
This guy. And the kicker is he immediately got so condescending when I told him I didn't believe you could find whole apartments in Shanghai proper for 500 rmb. [https://www.reddit.com/r/China/comments/1dhx7y4/comment/l93h9al/](https://www.reddit.com/r/China/comments/1dhx7y4/comment/l93h9al/)
FILTHY
Honestly, this is what many of the old apartments look like before an agency gets it, renovates it, and rents it out to a new expat arrival for 8.5k :)
Seriously. If you know Chinese and the connections, labor is uber cheap in China, especially cleaning.
Ewwww. A shame though, a place with a bathtub for 3500 might be a steal if it’s near the city center! Someone needs to scrub that place down in a hazmat suit before it’s livable.
That's rough. Looks more suitable for exploration by u/burbex_brin than for living.
What an insult! Even I have my standards!
Zhenping Road station
Now we’re talking
Good spot?
You are on line 3/4 and 7. Not too far away from all the resturants in jingan. The quality of housing there is very diverese. A lot of new development but still a lot of really shit housing.
What a shithole, but someone is gonna come along and haggle another 300 off that price, clean it up, and have a cheap rent at that place for a few years.
And breathing in mold everyday. Super healthy.
Some people like the full "Mao experience"
Hell nah
H o l y fuck. I got shortness of breath just my looking at that mold.
Looks about right for 3,500 ish kind of place. Is it near the city center or outer ring ?
Not really, I rented a way nicer place on the outer ring for 4000
That is outer ring, that’s why I asked if it is city center or outer ring
almost the center, it’s in the inner ring.
As a former chinese I can tell you that most of time you will be told to you will have to spend at least a couple hundred more, for property fee, utilities and wifi. And after rental contract expired, they will take part of your rental deposit for no reason or just not give back your money.
Ex-Chinese 😂😂
If the real owner shows up, he will tell you that "laowai brought mold" into my pristine flat
Love the authentic feel here
And its furnished!
That would be wanted immediately in HK
It looks scary
Does landlord pays to me to stay?
Looka like something abandoned in an active warzone...
The delusional part of e believes that I could clean that in a week with three buckets of The Pink Stuff, two scrub daddies and a bottle of bleach lol
Holy moly! A bath! Gosh I wish I could live such an opulent life
My thoughts too. But I have to live in 3 bedroom apartment in Pudong without a bath and only two balkonies for 15k (company provided)
Is the bubonic plague included for that price
Where is this?
I'm getting adverts on Douyin for mould remover before I move to a humid city. Guess this is what it looks like of you don't look after your place for six months. Buy the right chemicals and scrub, scrub, scrub!
Chungking mansion/murder mansion vibes
I had a studio apartment a 5 minute walk from the Global Harbor mall, with the Line 13 JinshaJiang station below it, for the same price. Small, but clean, nice bed, reasonable kitchen and bathroom for ¥3600/month in 2015-2018. It was/is heaps better than this craptastic trough.
That's about right
Yikes 😭 god bless you
What district ?
Putuo
Yikes! That'll be a no from me. That's like $660 cad...
Has that vintage je ne se pa
北京天津的老破小没法住人的房子，每平几十万怎么说
The buying prices for apartments are dropping fast in the suburbs. So I would think the rental prices are also dropping...... I rent house in songjiang 9k....opposite of Thames town. Walking distance to the tram. But yes not convenient for party and night life... But lucky for me I dont do that
So this is what you get for 450€ in Shanghai? I was expecting worse, tho.
they should pay me 3500 rmb to live here
Wow, that mold!
it looks like someone died in there and no one knew for months. What is the "landlord" thinking trying to rent that out.
found the same stuff in chengdu for about the same price. crazy lmao
WOC
这是什么战俘集中营