Do you need to pay an additional fee on top of the rent to use club house facilities in Shanghai apartments?

I thought that the use of swimming pool, tennis court would be covered by the rent but my agent told me that I will need to buy a membership and pay annual fee to use those facilities. Is this normal in Shanghai, case-by-case or is my agent trying to rip me off?

Generally, you do need to pay extra. Many times the price a resident of the estate pays is lower than what the general public pays.

I think someone should investigate and see if the club facilities were built with money that the individual homeowners paid or the facilities are otherwise subsidized by the homeowners. If so, then the homeowners already "paid" for the club and should be able to use it for free.

Its normal that it costs extra although sometimes you can negotiate membership with your landlord as part of the package.

Two of the complexes I visited: International City on Zhangyang lu, Pudong and Shimao Riviera Garden on West Weifang Road, Pudong, charge 50RMB/person to use the facility, regardless you're the tenant or a guest, unless of course you hold a membership with them; so I'm assuming that is the normal practice here.

Typically an owner with facilites at his/her compound either buys a club card at a discounted rate or is given one. This should be passed onto the tenant to use the facilities freely. Usually the gym, pool and sauna/spa are free of charge but things requiring equipment like tennis/squash and court usage would incur a charge.

Adrienne
http//www.shanghaiprops.com

Adrienne wrote:Typically an owner with facilites at his/her compound either buys a club card at a discounted rate or is given one. This should be passed onto the tenant to use the facilities freely. Usually the gym, pool and sauna/spa are free of charge but things requiring equipment like tennis/squash and court usage would incur a charge.

Not the way it usually works.

Owners who plan on not living intheir apartment will not buy a club membership as a gift to a tenant.

Also, in most estates club membership isn't feee -- and you pay per use for the pool. Owners pay less, of course, then those who do not own a property there.

agree with under on this. at my place the gym was advertised as a feature of the apartment. when it officially opened, we were told that it was a private company and thus residents had to pay to use it. i learnt my lessons from this. in china when they say that there is a gym or pool in your building, thats what they mean. they dont mean that its free for you to use it.

kumlong wrote:agree with under on this. at my place the gym was advertised as a feature of the apartment. when it officially opened, we were told that it was a private company and thus residents had to pay to use it. i learnt my lessons from this. in china when they say that there is a gym or pool in your building, thats what they mean. they dont mean that its free for you to use it.

Yep, that's the way it works.

Yeah, gotta disagree with Adrienne on this one too. In may cases, the developers retained the rights to the clubs and thus contracted the clubs out to outside for-profit vendors to sel these services back to the tenants. Recent (March 2008) tightening of the real estate law though prohibits this if no actual title deeds were issued or applied for by the developer. In cases like that, the new laws are clear that those properties not specifically covered by a deed of sub deed are to be considered the domain of the home owner association. Needless to say some local developers signed last minute contracts for many such properties to try and get in under the wire but savvy home owners in many complexes are starting to address not only the revenues from rent and contracts for such clubs and such.

Anyhow, to the OP, yes it is normal for clubs and facilities to be an extra fee in many complexes. For those that it is not, your rent probably is expensive enough to bury that expense.

Well, many thanks for the insight and education on this matter. Every contract I've ever done has included free sport's club usage by tenant in the way stated above. As we generally deal with higher end properties it's never been an issue but as pointed out above, different developments have different ways.

Bottom line is to check the whole thing clearly with the agent/landlord during negotiaions as you don't want to get caught out assuming you can use the club for free.

Adrienne
http://www.shanghaiprops.com

maybe i am wrong but most landlords do not seem to honor contracts in shanghai. i had a friend who was asked to move (after only 3mths into his contract) when his landlord wanted to sell the place. i did not encounter such problems in my place but had a big argument over the electricity bill as they charged me an industrial rate, without even notifying me in the first place. so the impression that i get is that whoever is loudest win.

kumlong wrote: so the impression that i get is that whoever is loudest win.

And that is the correct impression. Unfortunately.