Question:
Hello,
when searching around online for an apartment in Shanghai I find many different classifications – some call them “great“, “luxurious” and “fresh“. But can you point me in a direction on how I could know what kind of classifications that should be used? And maybe give some pictures as examples?
Regards,
Answer:
Hello, and thanks for your question. We are always open to answer questions about apartments in Shanghai.
With “fresh” apartments, most people mean that you live in a compound. That is a place with several high-rise buildings, usually with a pleasant courtyard. Often are these apartments referred to as “service apartments” or just “compound apartments“. There are a lot of those compunds in Shanghai.
Compound apartment
They look like this from the outside:
In this type of house should expect at least 8000 -10 000RMB / month for 3 bedrooms, 1 living room, 1 kitchen and 2 bathrooms.
Also be aware that you can contact us to get an apartment in the city centre of Shanghai. It´s free and without any commitment!
And they look something like this from the inside (varies a lot):
Lane house
Another type of apartment very popular in Shanghai is so-called “lane houses”. These are old houses available in the city centre of Shanghai. It is very common to find a lot of lane houses in the most expensive parts of Shanghai.
Please note that it is sometimes very “strange” furniture even in relatively new lane houses – you will see that if you search for this kind of apartment trough different real estate agents.
Expenditure is in addition to rent, water, electricity, gas and internet. With normal usage, this tends to be about 500 RMB per month. It is also very common to use a maid (“ayi” in the local language). They cost around 15-20 RMB per hour and you choose yourself how many hours she will be working. I have an ayi who comes every sunday for two hours and clean the whole apartment, which is amazing.
If you live in this type of apartment there are usually many other Westerners in the same building. This also means that sometimes there is someone with English skills if problems arise. Otherwise, well, the only service that includes 24-hour security guards, which according to me is quite superfluous, since Shanghai is a very safe city.
The French Concession, Shanghai.
