My husband, 2.5 year old and I will be moving to Shanghai in August. We are trying to figure out what we would like for housing. Since we will only be in Shanghai for 1 year, his company has suggested a serviced apartment. I've found several nice ones in the French Concession that would be convenient for his work, and near preschools for our daughter.

Our other option would be a serviced townhouse or villa in Pudong. Does anyone have any particular villa recommendations near Century Park?

My preference would be to live in the FC, but I'm not sure if that is reasonable with a young toddler. Are there many good parks and outdoor space there? Forgive my lack of knowledge of Shanghai-I've never even visited the city before!

I'd really appreciate any help!

For a 1 year stint, FC should be a lot more convenient for you but since I am in the Century Park area, better have people from the FC area advise you as the best place to locate with parks and friendly toddler access in that area. Should not be hard to find. Convenience to work and schools are two of the most important factors to consider and it seems you have done that.

Good luck on your move. If you use the search box to the left you will also find many resources used by other individuals in a similar situation to yours.

Thanks for your reply. I should add that our budget is up to $8,000US, which seems so high, but might not be high enough for some of the villas around Century Park. Has anyone noticed more room for negotiation on rates seeing as so many expats are leaving?

I was very interested in Seasons Villas, but it seems like they are closing (??) I would appreciate any info on other villas in that same area (i.e. Thomson Golf, etc)

In terms of the serviced apartments, we are looking at Lanson Place, Shama, 41 Hengshan Road. If anyone has info. on these places I would much appreciate it.

Sounds like you should talk to:

Adrienne

She handles the types of properties you are interested in at:

http://www.shanghaiprops.com

FC was my choice and I am happy with it. You may want to consider the distance from work as well.

My idea is that if we lived in the FC near line 1, my husband would be able to get to his job in People's Square fairly quickly. Does that sound about right? On the other hand, if we lived near the Century Park stop, he could also take the subway in....Is Century Park very far on the subway? I'm having a very hard time judging distance in Shanghai!

No question you will be happier in FC.

chrisviolin wrote:My idea is that if we lived in the FC near line 1, my husband would be able to get to his job in People's Square fairly quickly. Does that sound about right? On the other hand, if we lived near the Century Park stop, he could also take the subway in....Is Century Park very far on the subway? I'm having a very hard time judging distance in Shanghai!

Century Park Subway to People's Square takes about 20 minutes. It can take, however, 8 - 12 minutes to get to the Century park or Science & Technology subways from the Vilas around Century Park. If you are country folk at heart, Century Park area is the place to be. If you are City folk at heart, then FC is the place to be.

Seems like you need this map:

http://www.exploreshanghai.com/

Invaluable. You can get travel times/cost from anyywhere to anywhere, using the Metro.

Thank you! That is extremely helpful!

8,000 US (per month I assume?) is insanely high. From what other people have said about her, Adrienne will get you a good deal, but if you end up talking to local property agents I strongly recommend you don't mention that figure to them!

Serviced Apartments don't really have much of an advantage over a regular apartment (or lane house) with a good ayi (maid) and a helpful property agency.

If your husband works at People's Square then anywhere close (e.g. 10 mins walk) from a line 1 or 2 metro station would be convenient so I wouldn't rule out Century Park on that basis. I think the FC has a lot more character though, and you would find a lot more to do with the daytimes whilst your fella is at work.

If possible, it's best idea to get a hotel room for a couple of weeks when you first arrive, get a feel for the place and see different types of accomodation.

Yeah, S-J is right. 55,000 RMB is a lot of bikkies.
The way the upper end rentals have plumetted recently, you should find a quite nice palace for less than half that. (even in FC)

Also the recommendation to stay somewhere for a short time to get the feel of a few areas is very wise.
A one year stint is not long, but in the WRONG place can seem like an age.

Really boils down to your needs, which only you people can decide.
With a young one, in the Century Park area, there are more open spaces to play in, and less crowded, but if you need access to restaurants, clubs, shopping, probably better in FC.

In case you didn't figure, on the metro map, just click on a station, and drag your pointer to another station.
From Century Park to People's Square is 19 minutes, 6 stops, 4 RMB. on No.2 Metro.

Well thank you guys/girls for your continued faith in me. I think you have already answered well but just wanted to add my two bob's worth.

One thing to bear in mind is that some of the owners of the very high end properties that the OP is referring do keep their prices pretty fixed and won't budge much for various reasons......maybe 10% or so. The other difference in this end of housing is that many are developer properties who are able to ride the storm better than individual landlords thus we don't see asbig a drops with them than you do in the lower-mid end apartments. The Xin Tian Di area has a number of serviced apartments and then there's the good ole Shanghai Centre and a few along Nanjing Rd like Tomorrow Square and Crystal Pavillion. All of them are offering some reasonable deals at present.

Feel free to PM me if you want a full list of serviced apartments in your range sent to you.

Adrienne

Using metro line 1 during the commute rush is one way is squeeze yourself thin At 3 rmb a time, cost efficient body shaping.

OTOH, if one can set his own office hours, metro save you all the aggregations from being struck in traffic , even with chaffeur.

I currently live in a 2.5 bedroom in Lanson Pl and pay around $6K US. Its a great life - full maid svc, bfast 6 times per week, great mgmt and great location. I am looking to move to Pudong when my family arrives shortly b/c of the schools and b/c of the recreational area and green space and clean(er) air. I will miss having the city at my doorstep but decided to do whats best for the kids, and the city is a 20 min car ride away.

Recently ran into a young expat family that moved to the FC in a lane house, and a few weeks after moving in, had their home burglarized while they were asleep. Although that can happen anywhere, chances of it happening in a serviced apt or in one of the ultra secure compounds is significantly lower.

Adrienne is right in that the hig quality places are not discounting. Lanson will, but Sharma will not, even though both are equal. Seasons closing down has created more demand for comounds in Pudong, and the really high end ones (like Willowbrook) are not budging at all.

This is a great question -- we have been thinking about the same thing. I agree with others -- it all boils down to what your needs are. We have a 3 year old and I am due again in August. We lived in Pudong for the past 4 years and really gotten used to the life around here. It is definitely more open and less crowded/noisy compared to the down town area. With your budget, I don't think you will have a problem finding nice villa/service apartments within budget. If you are just here for one year, I would suggest a nice service apartment since you will be dealing with developers and not individual landlords, who can be a pain sometimes. You also don't have to worry about getting an ayi since service apartments provide the cleaning services for you. Have you checked out Chateau Pinnacle -- it is right across from the Huashan Park near the FC. They have a 350 sq m unit (about the size of a villa) with 3 bedroom suites and 1 study. It is fully furnished (comes with bedding, linens and utensils) and maid service 5x a week (with change of linen 2x a week). We are very impressed with the unit (all floor heating) and are now working on an offer. It starts at RMB50,000 -- which is a bit high, but worth it. The downside is that it's a bit of a walk to subway station (maybe 15-20 minutes). If you have a driver, that's not an issue.

Thanks for all of the advice. I suppose my main concern has to do with parks/playgrounds in the FC. Are there many? I think in many ways it would be easier for us to move to a serviced apartment there, but I have never lived in a city as densely populated as Shanghai. I'm worried that there won't be any parks nearby to get to easily with a toddler. In Pudong it seems like that wouldn't be an issue at all...

@chrisviolin: well, this is really The crux. You should come here, sus the place out, stay in a budget hotel, look around, and go from there.
You will be fine.

There are a few parks around, Fuxing Park in the FC, Zhongshan Park is fairly close- not walkable, but maybe 15RMB / 10 minutes in a taxi and a decent size.

Definitely more green space in Pudong- Century Park is the biggest in the city, but I would have thought there will be plenty of playgroups etc. around in Puxi to keep your daughter interested, and lots of whatever daytime activities you fancy doing.

Anyway, you're getting lots of great advice on this thread- good luck!

I suggest that you could live around Xujia hui Park area, it is big park and near by FC, and there are many big house can be choosen, both old house with big garden and new apartment with floor heating. I recommended the guy who is nice real estate agent name Max, you can reach him at info@maxproperty.com.cn, he will let you know what is the real FC.

Renovator wrote:

chrisviolin wrote:My idea is that if we lived in the FC near line 1, my husband would be able to get to his job in People's Square fairly quickly. Does that sound about right? On the other hand, if we lived near the Century Park stop, he could also take the subway in....Is Century Park very far on the subway? I'm having a very hard time judging distance in Shanghai!

Century Park Subway to People's Square takes about 20 minutes. It can take, however, 8 - 12 minutes to get to the Century park or Science & Technology subways from the Vilas around Century Park. If you are country folk at heart, Century Park area is the place to be. If you are City folk at heart, then FC is the place to be.

This advise is delusional.

Century Park is nothing at all like the city, and nothing like the countryside. This only qualifies as the countryside if you are from Mars.

On occasion you will hear people in Shanghai say something along the lines of....

"I really like Pudong because it's quieter, with more green space and the air is cleaner."

When you meet these people back slowly away while muttering soothing words. You're dealing with an advanced case of mania brought on by the psychology of previous investment in a poor living arrangement.

Chavster wrote:

Renovator wrote:

chrisviolin wrote:My idea is that if we lived in the FC near line 1, my husband would be able to get to his job in People's Square fairly quickly. Does that sound about right? On the other hand, if we lived near the Century Park stop, he could also take the subway in....Is Century Park very far on the subway? I'm having a very hard time judging distance in Shanghai!

Century Park Subway to People's Square takes about 20 minutes. It can take, however, 8 - 12 minutes to get to the Century park or Science & Technology subways from the Vilas around Century Park. If you are country folk at heart, Century Park area is the place to be. If you are City folk at heart, then FC is the place to be.

This advise is delusional.

Century Park is nothing at all like the city, and nothing like the countryside. This only qualifies as the countryside if you are from Mars.

Maybe you should actually read the quote before responding. Nobody claims at anytime that I can see that Century Park is at all like the city or countryside.

This should help. If you would pick New Jersey over New York City..Then Pudong is for you.. If you would prefer New York City then it's FC....You can rent some really nice old houses and still be in your budget..

Thanks all! I can see that the Puxi/Pudong debate is much like the NYC/NJ debate-strong opinions all around! This is all great advice. I think we will take a look at a few places around Century Park for comparison sake, but will probably put most effort into looking in the FC. As someone above mentioned, I'm sure with all of the expats there are plenty of mom/kid groups to get involved in. My husband and I are "city" people, but we just want to make sure thing are comfortable for our daughter...In a way we are lucky that we don't have older children who need to go to some of the further off international schools, so I suppose we should take advantage of that!

....

Renovator wrote:

Chavster wrote:

Renovator wrote:

chrisviolin wrote:My idea is that if we lived in the FC near line 1, my husband would be able to get to his job in People's Square fairly quickly. Does that sound about right? On the other hand, if we lived near the Century Park stop, he could also take the subway in....Is Century Park very far on the subway? I'm having a very hard time judging distance in Shanghai!

Century Park Subway to People's Square takes about 20 minutes. It can take, however, 8 - 12 minutes to get to the Century park or Science & Technology subways from the Vilas around Century Park. If you are country folk at heart, Century Park area is the place to be. If you are City folk at heart, then FC is the place to be.

This advise is delusional.

Century Park is nothing at all like the city, and nothing like the countryside. This only qualifies as the countryside if you are from Mars.

Maybe you should actually read the quote before responding. Nobody claims at anytime that I can see that Century Park is at all like the city or countryside.

I'll start reading your posts with rapt attention when you decide to start writing them in comprehensible English. Read the above sentence. It's gibberish.

Anyhow, the point being - If you're "country folk at heart" and you move to Pudong then you will be severely disappointed. Or you will completely rationalize your decision to the point of self-delusion as most do here.

@ OP:

Shanghai is similar to most other major world cities. The elite, educated and financially well off find housing either very close to work, or in downtown, centrally located, accessible areas. In Shanghai that's usually FC, although there are other well appointed areas. FC offers quiet, kid-friendly, bike and pedestrian suitable neighourhoods that are quiet and green. You just gotta pay the bucks to live there. But on your budget that isn't going to be an issue. As others have posted, that's a ludicrously high budget even for ripoff expat priced housing. For that, you can get a luxuriously large penthouse flat in any tree-lined street in the FC with cook, ayi and butler if you like. Your own driver, gym and Chinese tutors as well. You can live the life of a European aristocrat or at least a reasonably well known DJ from the U.K.

Or you could just blow the whole stack on some lamentably designed villa out in Jinqiao and pretend you never left the suburbs of Trenton, NJ.

Your choice.