Hi,

I already been in Shanghai for more than 1 year and have stayed at different places.
So far my experience has been that there are either old (old for China, built ~1985) buildings with dirty stairways and old kind of sewage/pipe systems (less water pressure, kitchen sink is ends somewhere outside beside the door, etc...
Some places have been renovated nicely inside (stayed at one near Tongji for a long time) but this doesnt make everything well. These places all of your neighbors also never use air conditioning, the windows are very simple and even with your air conditioning running it will never get warm.

On the other hand I've seen new high rise buildings with apartments >95sqm, at least 2 sleeping rooms and big living room, useful for big families and flat shares. Those generally have better sewage/pipes etc. etc. but we are only 2 persons, so we dont need that big of an apartment.

I will have to move soon and are actually looking for an apartment somewhere not too far outside of the city with 50-65sqm, maybe rent for 3000RMB or some more.

Are there apartments in between the 2 kinds i described before?

I know from my past experiences that the agencies only know a few places close by, if youre in the wrong area they dont have anything more far away at all.
So now i will try to loke for some are or compound first and then see if i can find some agency around there or get information online (i will have somebody chinese with me when i will go looking for the new place).

thanks in advance

event wrote:
I will have to move soon and are actually looking for an apartment somewhere not too far outside of the city with 50-65sqm, maybe rent for 3000RMB or some more.

Are there apartments in between the 2 kinds i described before?

Can give you the name of a compound that has smaller apartments. It's downton but way more expensive - as far as I remember around 5000-6000

"On the other hand I've seen new high rise buildings with apartments >95sqm, at least 2 sleeping rooms and big living room, useful for big families and flat shares. Those generally have better sewage/pipes etc. etc. but we are only 2 persons, so we dont need that big of an apartment."
these are also mostly built with unskilled fresh-off-the-farm laborers , your best bet is find place with attentive bldg mgmt who will come unplug the piping. ask around for recommendations asto which buildings have better service.
we have stayed at a friend's rented place in Yanlord Lujiazui. even as a 5 years old apt the floor drain in the guest bathroom was capped by a plastic bag (make for instant flood when you showered).

da'an gardens is a huge complex (~55 buildings) that has a lot of smaller 1 bedrooms from 3500-4000.

Ye some compound names would be nice which have 1 bedroom apartments.

somewhere in Changning, Zhabei, Putuo, Hongkou

I feel if you already found a few compounds where you know there are interesting apartments for you the search gets to be a whole lot easier. As I said, the agencies not gonna help you alot, they just offer what they have listed right now...

da'an is at the border of jing'an and putuo (one block across the dividing line). it's not the best compound but it's huge and there is sure to be a lot of units available at any given time.

Its at wuning road changshou road right? 武宁路长寿路
i think i drove by a few times, looked very decent. I found an offer to rent a 55sqm apartment for 3500 per month, you think thats a realistic price, its a scam, or could i even discuss the price a little bit?

and are there maybe similar compounds, even if theyre outside the line 3/4 ring?

thanks alot!

1 bedroom, 40 - 50 square meter flats, are not common. The most common are 80 - 100 square meter 2 bedroom flats. I have a 92 square meter 2 bedroom and it's just fine for 1 person. If I were to have a wife or live in gf, I'd want at least a 140 to 160 square meter flat. Also, one bedroom flats are often the same price as 2 bedroom flats. Why? Because there is a scarcity of 1 bedroom flats and an abundance of 2 bedroom flats.

I understand why single apartments are still not normal in China, marriage is still the only accepted way to live your live for most of the families.

But why every family should at least buy a 2 bedroom apartment, and how they should afford this, is still unclear to me.

Maybe so far the property developers didnt have any problems selling their big apartments so they just stick to this since its easier to sell a few big apartments than many small ones...

But i found out i can use baidu's map in this lego world 3D function, its nice to check where good looking apartment compounds are and you can see their name as well.

If I found a compound I want to stay at, how would You guys try to find an apartment there, check webpages like 58.com, go to local agencies or check online forums like this one?

KopyKatKiller wrote:1 bedroom, 40 - 50 square meter flats, are not common. The most common are 80 - 100 square meter 2 bedroom flats.

This may be true. But in my last two searches (recently and two years ago) for apartments in Jing'an District there was no shortage of one-bedroom places for me to look at.

Prices ranged from 5,500 to 10,000rmb a month.

In both cases it took me just a couple of days to find my ideal place.

^^JingAn is special as it is kind of an Expat Town. I too have seen many 1 bedroom flats there for the prices you posted. However, in my area there are almost no 1 bedroom flats unless they are under the eves on the uppermost floor, often a floor above the last stop for the elevator and they cost the same as much bigger 2 bedrooms a few floors below.

@the OP. 80 - 90 square meters is mid-size is it not?

event wrote:Its at wuning road changshou road right? 武宁路长寿路
i think i drove by a few times, looked very decent. I found an offer to rent a 55sqm apartment for 3500 per month, you think thats a realistic price, its a scam, or could i even discuss the price a little bit?

and are there maybe similar compounds, even if theyre outside the line 3/4 ring?

thanks alot!

it should be a real price. i'm not sure how much you can get off with negotiation. depends on the condition and quality of the particular unit, but that seems to be the going rate. there's a couple of chinese supermarkets nearby, a taiwanese supermarket and an international supermarket in the basement of 889 plaza on changshou lu.

if you decide to rent there, try to get a unit that faces the garden. anything that faces the street will be pretty noisy around rush hour.

event wrote:I understand why single apartments are still not normal in China, marriage is still the only accepted way to live your live for most of the families.

But why every family should at least buy a 2 bedroom apartment, and how they should afford this, is still unclear to me.

When you marry you are supposed to have a child at least the parents of my Chinese friends are nagging like "when are you finally having a baby" blabla ...
and later your are supposed to take in your parents or your wifes parents ....

But I agree about the prices here. I nearly fainted when I heard how much the apartement would cost we are staying in right now.

KopyKatKiller wrote:1 bedroom, 40 - 50 square meter flats, are not common. The most common are 80 - 100 square meter 2 bedroom flats. I have a 92 square meter 2 bedroom and it's just fine for 1 person. If I were to have a wife or live in gf, I'd want at least a 140 to 160 square meter flat. Also, one bedroom flats are often the same price as 2 bedroom flats. Why? Because there is a scarcity of 1 bedroom flats and an abundance of 2 bedroom flats.

there will be a lot more of these smaller units built in the future in the large city centers. this is what professional singles will rent (and can afford to buy) and the trend is toward delaying or putting off marriage altogether. china will go the way of the rest of its peers (japan, s. korea, hk, taiwan, singapore) both in amount of living space per person, birthrates, and age of marriage.

i looked at all sorts of places when i was apartment hunting, from 80 sqm to 135 sqm. living with my girlfriend, i prefer a place closer to 80sqm than 135sqm. a small place has its benefits. you tend to accumulate less stuff and go out more.

Do not agree with a lot of these comments. There are plenty of one bed aparrtments in this big town.

I have had a 70 metre apartment with two of us, one bedroom, 4 rooms, all good size, King size bed suite, soundproof, cozy, been here 5 years. Why would you need anything bigger?

^^Me, I'm a single guy with a cat. I'd prefer a 150 square meter all to myself with 2 bathrooms, 3 bedrooms and a oven in the kitchen. My 92 square meter flat is getting cluttered after 2.25 years. Living in a crowded congested place like Shanghai, I figure the more empty space you can afford to rent, the richer you are regardless of rent or salary. My home is a fortress of solitude in this crazy noisy city.

I went to a few places yesterday, but came back empty handed.

I checked 中远两湾城 and some other places at Hai Ning Lu and near Lin Ping Lu (Rainbow City).

But looks like there are way too less small apartments available. And the small ones in the high buildings are also often in unfavorable places, like the one i visited in 中远两湾城 mostly facing to the railway tracks in the north of it with only a small windows facing south. Of course the agent was talking about the apartment facing south... And that one was even 4000RMB a month, and the stuff inside was a few years old as well...

Other stuff I saw was even worse, in those old high buildings. Most of the agents said for 1 bedroom apartments i would have to think about paying 4000-4500RMB. While 2 bedrooms ones start at 5000...

I think I'm gonna settle for one in an older not-highrise building. This way i can get a nicely renovated one with new equipment for around 2800RMB , even the stairway will be dirty. But still better then paying 4000RMB or more for one with a shitty location and old equipment...

Worst one was an 27 floor building built 1990, so **** dirty in the stairway and the fire fighting equipment was of course locked... Looked like no maintenance for 20 years...

I feel in Shanghai you only have two choices, a) pay >6000RMB a month and get something decent or b) go for flatshares. Everything else is at best mediocre...