Beijing Property Market

Searching for an apartment in Beijing has been a royal pain. The first thing to note is that estate agents are not honest. Ok, you might say the same thing about realtors in the west since they may not disclose things about a property, they are essentially working for the home owner and for their own commission. This applies here in Beijing too, but the difference comes with the degree of deception. Many places that we have seen listed have looked very nice, but the actual apartments don’t resemble the pictures at all, or a listing will be posted one day and magically be sold by the time we contact the agency. No worries though, the agency has other property they can show us. When we have gone to properties sometimes the owners aren’t there so we went for no reason or the agents forget the key so we can’t get in. Its very unorganized. The other thing to note is that it seems property owners do not feel beholden to woo the customers. I still don’t understand why this is. Many places we saw were expensive, but were shown without being cleaned after the last tenants left or with trash lying around or peeling wallpaper. It would seem to me that selling property is an arms race, but maybe not. When we express interest but ask if small repairs can be made they say no. Its been a frustrating process but essentially this market seems to be experiencing very high demand for what may still be a limited thing in China. No, I don’t mean housing is limited, far from it. There are apartment buildings and villas springing up all around. Many places are less than half full and its getting to be that may apartment blocks outside the major cities are less than half filled. The thing that is in short supply is an investment vehicle for ordinary Chinese citizens.

Unlike in western countries ordinary Chinese citizens are not allowed to invest in foreign stocks, bonds, property or other things. Nor are they allowed to buy Chinese government bonds or to invest in Chinese companies that list on the stock market (the current IPO of Alibaba, the biggest IPO in history is made all the more interesting by that fact). So as a Chinese citizen where do you put your money to mature as you age? Housing. Forget about living in it, buy to invest. All this is fine to a degree, but it also means that the property market in China is red hot. The government has taken steps to slow this down like limiting couples to one mortgage between them (causing a lot of divorces in order to hold multiple properties) or putting a price cap on rents, which really just delays consumption not stop it. In some cities there have even been riots when housing prices have dropped since it means the next guy is getting a cheaper price than you did. If you are a real estate company you have to find other ways to promote your company over others.

All this comes back to finding a place to live here in Beijing. Trying to find an apartment where floor boards aren’t warped or the furniture stained in a building that isn’t decrepit and is close to some amenities has been a challenge. Most of the places that we have view are dirty, broken down, dark, badly decorated, or are so far from any supermarket/restaurant/transport to make them unlivable. Some of these places are downright embarassing. WHY would you put stickers of white people on your light switches?
Currently we are in a serviced apartment at Days Inn in Shunyi. It has two bedrooms and two bathrooms with a decent living room/dining area. It is serviced twice a week and there is a gym and pool on site. We also have the ear of the front desk and can ask for services if we need them. This runs us about 2000USD per month. As a living space its nice, but it takes at least 20 minutes to walk to the nearest restaurant/convenience store area. Not so convenient.

Just this week we finally settled for a place in Star City, Lido district. This puts us downtown, but not the center. The apartment is 3 bedrooms/2bath with a large enclosed balcony. Its too much space for us, but the best part was that the landlord had no furniture in the apartment and agreed to give us 2500USD with which to purchase furniture and appliances of our choosing. The rent is also about as good as it will get at about 1400USD a month. The property does have a small gym and the location puts us about a 5 minute walk from a few restaurants and a large grocery stores. Go 10-15 minutes on foot and the options increase. Also, we are right across the street from the 798 art district which should prove interesting for weekend exploration.

So we didn’t get an apartment with a bath tub in the living room or with a huge crystal chandelier. Besides finally landing our apartment what we did get was a glimpse into the property market of Beijing and man, it’s a mess. You just have to smile and laugh, remembering that, ‘Anything is Possible in China’.