Locating an Apartment

To find an apartment you have to hire a realtor in the area that you are looking to rent. The fee is one months rent. Then he hunts for you based on your criteria. Depending on the area you will be living in - you may or may not be able to negotiate. If you are able to negotiate here are the items you want to think about adding to that list.

1. Owner pays for annual heating fee - the government charges it for the gas to heat your apartment. For our 127 square meter apartment in Beijing that fee was 3300 RMB
2. Often the rent is paid in 3,6,12 month increments - that is negotiable as is the deposit amount
3. You have to pay taxes to the government when you rent an apartment of 5-10% of the rental amount per month. Who pays it is something that should be discussed in advance and is negotiable.
4. What happens if you terminate the lease.
5. That the realtor takes your passport/visa to the police station to get your permanent residency card. We went with a premiere company, and we felt comfortable doing this - has saved us several trips downtown.
6. Who pays the utilities
7. Do a walk through and negotiate furniture and any fixes that might be needed.
8. You will find that your apartment might have a ton of old things that may or may not be working...work that out with your landlord in advance because it is my understanding that it is very rude to ask your landlord if you can throw the broken items away.

If someone gives you a website with rental units available - do not waste your time. Most units are not for rent and certainly not at the price indicated. Realtors do that so that you will call them - it is the typical bait and switch.

You typically do not see leases for less than 12 months, but inflation on rents have been around 25% per year - so you might be able to negotiate something.

You can also rent a "serviced" apartment for shorter term stays.

One thing that you have to expect is that every apartment has its own drawbacks....is it a smelly bathroom, roaches, no sidewalks to keep children safe in the complex, hot water issues, terrible furniture, no bathtub, shower without a door....That is life in China.