We are planning to move to Shanghai end July/Aug - and will be coming out in a few weeks to look for accomodation. To date - I've found the forum invaluable to give a sense of place - so have taken the plunge and will be asking for advice.

We have managed to find places for our children into Dulwich college (aged 8 & 6) - and were wondering what compounds are realistic to request for our "viewing list" given our budget of 47500rmb. (at this stage we prefer the fully furnished route- but openminded)

We have received an initial list - with a strong emphasis on The Emerald, Tiziano, Belle Woods etc. - which all appear to be a big commute to Dulwich (though close to BISS)- is this price driven - despite requests to focus search in Jin Qiao. Other properties on the list include Tomson Golf villa, Buckingham villa, San Marino Bridge, Golden Oscar & Palm Spring Villa

I would appreciate any advice on bus routes (Dulwich College) - and preferable compounds (which are realistic for our budget) - given that my priority is to be as close as possible to the school - in a family friendly environment.

Much appreciated - and looking forward to seeing Shanghai first hand soon

safari wrote:We have received an initial list - with a strong emphasis on The Emerald, Tiziano, Belle Woods etc. - which all appear to be a big commute to Dulwich (though close to BISS)- is this price driven - despite requests to focus search in Jin Qiao. Other properties on the list include Tomson Golf villa, Buckingham villa, San Marino Bridge, Golden Oscar & Palm Spring Villa

Hello safari. I will try to do my best to give you some insight into the wonderful but often baffling world of real estate in Shanghai.

Firstly, in answer to your question about The Emerald, Tiziano and Belle Woods villa compounds in the Kanqiao area, I suspect there are two reasons they have been promoted to you. Firstly they are all very good villa compounds, especially The Emerald and Belle Woods and you can get a bette quality property there. The Emerald, Belle Woods and Tiziano have a number of avails and also have their own leasing office which has a good knowledge of what is going with the villas in their compound. Belle Woods itself is 100% developer owned therefore they know all abt their own villas. Often agents prefer to deal with the leasing office as you have a greater selection, the relations with the leasing office are long term and good and also there is good after service support. There are a number of more local housing villas in the Kanqiao area like Luoshan Villas but they are all privately owned and an agent needs to hunt down the landlord, negotiate with often very difficult landlords and then not really have the support of a good managment onboard for your afterservice. The more local housing developments whilst cheaper, definitely have this disadvantage.

Secondly, the Jinqiao area is by far the more in demand and the more expensive area therefore with your budget you would be getting more of a second tier property like Tomson Golf Villas, Buckingham, Golden Oscar and the like. Tomson is the only one actually located in the Jinqiao area and closest to the school. The others are all abt 10-15mins away in Zhang Jiang. There are four compounds in a row there....Golden Oscar, Passadena, San Marino and Buckingham. All of these would match your budget. You agent may not have any private landlord villas at some of these and there aren't really switched on leasing offices there so you will have a more limited choice. Agents can of course co-op with other agents but often don't prefer to do this because they have to split with the other agent. But you should really push them to do so if what you see is not to your liking.

Hope this helps a little and all goes well with the Look See. If you want an more advice or want to bounce things of me, feel free to contact me at manager@shanghaiprops.com. Have a look at our Advice on Leasing for some tips on the offer/contract handling.

Happy house hunting

Adrienne

I would recommend checking out the Emerald, you should be able to get the 4 Bedroom 5 Bathroom Villas nowadays (came down in price a lot), they're really sweet. 300 square meter garden and the Emerald itself is really a great place for families.

The Vizcaya is worth checking out, and right near the dulwich college is the dawn garden, the largest 400 sqm units aren't going to max out your budget though, still worth a look because of proximity.