Notes for renters in Shanghai

I found the Centraline agency to be the most helpful when searching for a rental property.  They’re one of the few agencies to have multiple branches, all hooked up to a single property database.  For checking market prices, I found the http://rent.online.sh.cn website to be accurate.  Once you have the name of a building, it’s easy to see how much apartments tend to go for, so that you know you’re being offered a ball park rental.

 

If you’re busy, then I would suggest leaving the agencies behind altogether.  They don’t get many high value properties, haven’t seen many themselves, many if not all of their agents lack age, experience and professionalism.  My suggestions are Savills, a subsidiary of the UK company, and Candis, an independent lady from HK.  Candis gave the best service.  As well as speaking English and Cantonese, she forwarded me photos of apartments by email before taking me to see them.  Surely everyone has the common sense to do this I hear you utter.  If only.

 

The process of renting a property was an eye opener.  After we settled on a property, we had trouble ascertaining who really was the owner of the property.  A lady claimed to be the landlady, but the ownership paperwork showed a different name.  At that point in time, another agency was on the line, claiming to have the real landlord in front of them.  Who to believe?  The situation is that the lady had bought several apartments, but due to buying restrictions in shanghai, had put this particular property under her brother’s name.  In effect she was the owner and landlady.  But she wasn’t the legal owner.

 

We were surprised to find clauses missing from the contract.  Things like, what length of notice period was necessary if either party wanted to break the contract.  Without this, it seemed the landlady could kick us out with a day’s notice, albeit giving us a month’s compensation.  Also there were no clauses on landlord access, e.g. to show prospective renters around the apartment in 11 months’ time.  (don’t forget also, no incentive for your ayi to respect your privacy when that time comes – she’ll let people in).  There’s no concept of ‘joint and several’, if more than one of you is signing the contract.  And if you need fa piao (receipts, which add 5% to your rental price), apparently they can only be made out in the name which appears on your contract.

 

I didn’t see any clauses explaining responsibilities or procedures in the event of problems, such as a leaking bathtub, perhaps leading to a week without running water.  It was helpful that Centraline agency had bilingual contracts for us, but it took a long time to add additional clauses to the contract, no matter how simple they seemed to be.  On our contract, exactly how much needed to be paid on each of our quarterly payments, wasn’t clearly stated.  I think it was designed with monthly payments in mind.

 

The bilingual side of things was somewhat irrelevant, because the contract also stated that in the event of inconsistency the Chinese version was authoritive.  Also, we needed to have a translator there, because the Chinese was written in ‘old language’, or ‘lawyer speak’ – absolutely no chance of being able to read it.  And it’s got to be disconcerting when you have agents around you excited about clinching another high value deal, all of whom must be under 25 years of age, and telling you to ‘trust them’, and a translator with you who being a local doesn’t really understand why you’re being so cautious.  It’s because of course, us foreigners have been told over and over again – that we’ll be ripped off at every opportunity.  How can you blame us for being cautious?

 

New Buildings

The first clue, should be whether the lift has been boxed up.  Other than that, a gaze at the outside of the building, looking for curtains, air conditioning units, satellite dishes.  Low occupancy means renovations work.  Which means drilling and banging at 7am every day.  Every day.  7am.  Security is a distinct problem in such places.  Building doors are often left open, as workers come and go.  Security guards welcome all and sundry in, if they even notice you coming in.  Our building door has had teething problems – the hinging is of such poor quality and design that ever since they started locking it, it breaks consistently within a matter of weeks.

 

One good thing about new buildings – fast lifts.  Look to see where the lifts stop by default.  In ours, one waits on the ground, another on the 15^th floor.  So getting out of the building in the morning is real quick.  Listen for the acceleration when you call for a lift.

 

If you have security concerns, insist on having a peephole fitted to your door.  (That’s if you’re so lucky that you don’t have a massive iron gate as an additional door).  We’ve had workmen, salesmen, friends, security, all come knock on the door.  It’s all a bit eerie when you’re not expecting someone, and you know the local security is less than marvelous.  If you’re very security conscious, then check to make sure that the front and back doors are fitted correctly, with hinge bolts on the insides, and check to see if the doors self-lock on closing.

 

New apartments

A few things to check.  This hasn’t got much to do with China I suppose, but I didn’t really have much experience of renting before I came out here.  Check the quality of the furniture.  It might look Ikea like, but there are some very cheap look-alikes.  Wood veneer laminates are peeling off parts of our furniture, after a couple of months’ usage.  Tacky.  Curtains – all of our curtains look great, but are made of very thin material that doesn’t at all stop the light coming in.  Glare on the TV, and hard to lie in on the weekend.  Rushed fittings – the skirting board in my bedroom was fitted cold – now with heat expansion, it has bulged out from the wall.

 

General

Check out the air conditioning.  Is it central a/c, or individual units?  I’m led to believe that central is more efficient, and certainly less obtrusive.  Look to see how many and how large the a/c units are on the outside of the property.  Modesty on this front caps the number of guests you can have in the summertime.  Check how powerful the gas boiler is – can it handle two hot showers at once?  Check the insulation.  Are you going to have cold drafts coming through window cracks in the winter?  Is there double glazing?  How big are the gaps under the external doors?  Oh…. And check for mosquitoes…  In one apartment over suzhou creek, there were mozzies on the 26^th floor.  Maybe it’s the water.  Or maybe they’re completely unavoidable…. Shock horror.  Lastly, look to see if there’s an oven, or if the washing machine you have does a hot wash.  Not common…

 

Lastly…. Think about the price you’re paying.  At under 9k, our 3 bed property is in the good quality range, but not excellent quality.  It’s far from perfect, but at this price range it’s still cost effective.  Going up a quality level, life is better, but a considerable amount more expensive.