Mrs. Skyline & I went out to the Jiuting area to do some apartment shopping this weekend, not to rent, but to buy. Most of these properties won't even be handed over until next summer to fall, plus they'll need renovation time. That being said, looks like we're renting for an additional year as well.

One near Jiuting station was called "Mocha City". Silly name, but the sample apartment looked decent. We've also heard by another at a different apt. complex that "Mocha" seems to be the one that all the farmers are going to move into.

We also checked out a place called Olympic Gardens. http://www.sholympicgarden.cn/body/index.php Check out their website. The place is HUGE and they have to provide trollies to get people to the various gates. Needless to say, no way in hell are we getting a place in that labrynth. Unfortunately, it's the only one so far that fits my criteria of having a top-floor outside "patio"-type room.

There's also Bayside & Lakeview Garden. The Lakeview apartments looked decent, and only slightly more expensive than Mocha, though they have no 1st floor apartments nor top floor "patio" apartments. Bayside, we couldn't see the sample, but the architecture inside the compound is rather nice. We were told (granted, by an employee) that these were generally the best quality places in the area. 20 minutes from the subway station on foot.

Sun City... I don't know what the designers were thinking when they came up with the layout of those apartments. Having to walk through one bedroom to get to the other? Sounds rather daft.

Young City, we didn't even bother with that one, as their advertising and ideas suggest the place to be one massive college dormroom setting.

Anyone know anymore about these places? These are all on the southwest side of the Jiuting Metro Station. We haven't seen the Northeast end yet.

Also, while we were walking around the area, some real estate agents came up to us offering to find us a place. Considering these properties are for sale by the developers, why would we need an agent in this situation?

I bought an apartment in Olympic Garden and I don't see what is wrong with it being "huge". As you said they provide a free trolly to get you around to the first 2 phases and having spent a few months looking for an apartment in the area, my opinion is that it's the best place to buy in terms of surroundings, facilities, apartment quality and management efficiency. The only cons being the air quality and the fact that the 3rd phase (in which i bought my flat) is still disconnected from the rest of the compound.
Oh and they also have shuttle buses to Xujiahui and Zhongshang park, which is nice if you don't have a car.

Not sure about Olympic Garden. It's just that if we got our flat there, we'd just be surrounded, in the middle of the that massive complex concrete jungle. Looking at the map was almost depressing. The buildings are too close to each other. Maybe I didn't see enough of it.

Did you get the one with the patio on top? That was the model apt we saw. I do like that aspect of it.

jesusizbak, I bought a flat in the 3rd phase too. When is your possession date? and building number?

Skyline5k, not too sure exactly what made you feel Olympic Garden was anymore congested than any other complexes in the city, that's just the way it is in a city of over 20 million.

jesusizbak, I bought a flat in the 3rd phase too. When is your possession date? and building number?

My building number is 102. I got the apartment keys at the end of August. What about you?

Did you get the one with the patio on top? That was the model apt we saw. I do like that aspect of it.

No, the 3rd phase apartments layout is quite different from the ones on the 1st phase, they're just 2/3 bedrooms regular apartments with just one balcony. But a friend rents one of those with the high ceiling and even though they're cheap they're just too huge for just a couple. Plus, I don’t particularly like flats with high ceilings, especially here in shanghai where it's really hard to keep your apartment warm/cool without leaving your AC constantly on.
As for the compound itself, I find it better than average since it has a lot of greenery and sports facilities.
As for it being a massive complex, as far as I remember most of those in the JiuTing area are the same. Especially that Spanish inspired compound.

My possession date is July 15/09. I'm in building 66. Looking forward to have more expat neighbors.

Great, what type of apartment layout did you go for? I opted for the B1 eventough I sometimes regret it...
Did you already move in? Last time I went there it was pretty empty.

In the area of OG we saw, the apartments were close together. Impossible to get sunlight into the lower floors. Not a problem if we got the one with the outside patio at the top. The security guard there, though, told us that a trip to the metro would have to be by taxi, though we walked from Lakeside to the metro, 25 minutes.

Where I live now, it's the same way. I can see the girl in the building across from us quite clearly in her kitchen. Fortunately, she's attractive! Too close together.

In Bayside & Lakeview, the buildings were further apart, with much more greenery in between. Maybe I'm being too picky. We're going back out that way next Sunday as well.

I don't move in until next year, possession is July 15/09...I went for the B2 layout. I'm actually kinda glad that i'm moving in next year, as it stands right now, JiuTing is still quite under-developed, hoping for big changes next year.

Are you looking into both new and second hand apartments? If so, I would recommend looking into the 3rd phase of OG. They might not have the patio types but they're further away from that super noisy and dusty area on caobao lu (if I remember correctly). As for the metro, it is quite far from the main entrance of OG. One of the deciding factors that made me buy an apartment in OG was that they were supposed to have a shuttle bus to the metro as they do for ZhongShan and XuJiaHui. Unfortunately, as of today no plans have been made to offer this service...I heard though that line 2 was going to stop near that huge Carrefour located near the expat villas in the north west of OG (10 minutes by car). Again not so close to the compound but better than nothing.
In any case, good apartment hunting!

I don't move in until next year, possession is July 15/09...I went for the B2 layout. I'm actually kinda glad that i'm moving in next year, as it stands right now, JiuTing is still quite under-developed, hoping for big changes next year.

Yeah, you're definitely right, there is much space left for improvement. I do hope that it will get better in the near future.

Skyline, maybe you should wait just a little bit more
http://english.caijing.com.cn/2008-09-24/110015479.html

Real Estate Market Braces for Cold Winter

"Huang Xiong, vice president of Centaline (China) Property.
Huang predicted prices would fall back to 2005 levels. A bit more optimistic is Gao Haiyan, director of the Shenzhen Academy of Social Science’s City Operation Research Center, who thinks prices will bottom at 2006 levels."

We'll probably make the final purchase in January or February. Sounds like the right time according to that article. Mrs. Skyline has a bit of a real estate background too, so that'll help. I guess we're not going searching this weekend like I thought. Unfortunately, the missus is heading back to her hometown for a week.

unfortunately? wait a sec...

One of the places, Lakeview Gardens, the apartment we were interested in there has actually dropped by about 100,000 in price. Thank you, world economic crisis!

Just an update. After spending every weekend there for about a month, we finally got ourselves a place in Bayside Apartments. They had some of the larger apartments (130sqm+) on special, and after a bit of haggling, got the place last night! It's not ready till September, then have to do renovation, but we're quite happy with it!

As for other places there, we've learned that Sun City may have some developer problems, and Mocha were built rather cheap. Bayside & Lakeside seemed to be solid, though we hear that Bayside Management may not be the best. We'll deal with that when the time comes. Bayside is closer to Jiuting Station, so we opted for that one.

For the next year, the whole area is still going to be under construction, including our apartment. When Bayside finishes it's commercial area, there should be quite a few good shops & such there. Sun City has already finished its commercial section, but no one has moved in. A real estate agent quite proudly said that McDonalds will open up in one month there. Good for them. Other than that, looks like a decent area. Villas, apartments, all brand new, with Jiuting Park coming along nicely as well!