We were thrilled when we first started looking for an apartment in Shanghai. Not only were we on the hunt for our first apartment in a foreign country, but also our first home as a married couple. I’m having difficulty finding the right words to describe our excitement. It was somewhere between a dog chasing a tennis ball and a five-year-old on the sugar train. But as you can imagine, there was also a hint of anxiety. We were lost in the confusion that is China. Lost in one of the most populous cities in the world. Lost in a land where English is truly a foreign language.
Our enthusiasm had driven us to be proactive, so we started the hunt as prepared as possible, or so we thought. We had researched apartments on SmartShanghai and contacted the agents of all the apartments we were interested in. We also received a short induction from our employer to assist us in the hunt. In spite of having done all this, I still insisted on taking to the streets to hunt the old-fashioned way.
So, on our first weekend, we packed our backpacks and dove into the streets of Shanghai. We started in a neighbourhood on the outskirts of the inner city and leisurely wandered around looking for possible dwellings. It was a beautiful area that had a suburban feel to it with large villas on every other block. Unfortunately, we weren’t equipped to take down one of the villas, so we set our sights on the smaller prey.
We soon realised that my idea, to stalk apartments in Shanghai like a hunter in the African bush, sounded greatly more romantic than it was in reality. After an entire day of searching, without as much as a whiff of success, we were thoroughly discouraged. We found a bench, kicked off our shoes and snuggled up in the fading afternoon sunlight.
We sat on the bench like two bums, while we waited for a real estate agent we had contacted through SmartShanghai. Her name and profile picture on Wechat had already piqued our curiosity and we could hardly wait to meet her in person. We waited for what seemed like an eternity and we were just about to leave when she suddenly jumped off a scooter right in front of us.
The agent was a petite Chinese woman somewhere in her twenties. Her hair was an interesting shade of red and her outfit was a unique copy of the standard Shanghainese fashion trends. She was proficient in English to the extent that we could communicate and ask simple questions related to housing.
We only had time to look at one apartment. It turned out to be nothing we thought it would be, so we ended the day with no more than sore feet and tired legs.
The next morning, after a hearty breakfast, we set off once more to meet up with our new friend. A good night’s sleep had put the wind back in our sails and we rushed into the new day. This time we went to the inner city to see if we would have better luck there.
It was quite entertaining to work with the peculiar real estate agent. She had a tendency to pop up out of nowhere and then disappear again without warning. After each apartment she showed us, she would mumble something about a key, jump on her scooter and zoom off. Leaving us to wander the streets until she sent a message containing the address for our next rendezvous. This game of cat and mouse continued for about 6 hours, during which she would disappear for up to 30 minutes at a time.
We actually appreciated the time we had to wander the streets on our own. It contributed to our adventure in some unexpected and intriguing ways. During one of these wanderings, we came across a Russian girl that was also hunting for an apartment. She had been working in Beijing, in the ESL industry, for more than 4 years and decided to make the move to Shanghai in order to escape the pollution. We had a short, but intense and interesting conversation. We didn’t even introduce ourselves and yet we weren’t strangers.
I have an absolute fascination with interactions like these. Sharing deep thoughts and life experiences with strangers. They provide the opportunity to gain insight into people’s lives and the motivations fueling their journeys through life. It is hard to explain, but you realise just how different, yet similar, people from across the world are.
In total, we looked at six apartments. All of them had a number of desirable qualities, but none seemed to have the magic something we were looking for. Thinking back, we might have been a little too finicky.
That afternoon, I managed to convince Adrien to attempt a second outing on foot. We got on the metro and went to a random stop in an area we thought might tickle our fancy. We explored the little streets and alleyways, wandering aimlessly. It was indeed an interesting part of the city and we soon started to fantasise about our life there.
While exploring, we came across a real estate agency. We didn’t really have anything to lose, so we decided to go in and see what we could find. From the first attempt to convey our desires to the office staff, I realised that it was going to be much more challenging than we had expected. We finally managed to communicate with one of the staff members, Michael, who could understand some English. He showed us some options on his computer and after we had expressed enough interest, grabbed some keys and beckoned us out the door.
All the apartments he showed us were great, but one stood out above the rest. It was a small, newly renovated, one bedroom flat, on the roof of an old 4 storey building. The only problem was the price.
Eager to test my bargaining skills, I jumped at the opportunity to negotiate. I told Michael that if he could lower the price by 1500 RMB, we would sign the lease on the spot. His reaction was one of amusement and I could see that he didn’t think much of my proposal. He responded by advising us to sign as quickly as possible to avoid the price hike of the new year. I paid little attention to his comment and continued my haggling by stating that he would have to drop the rent by at least 1000 RMB. He seemed to think this was much more reasonable and promised to see what he could do. Feeling pleased with myself, I left it at that.
We spent another few minutes just talking, and he told us about the shutdown during Chinese New Year. Apparently, all the banks and estate agencies would be closed for the duration of the celebrations. The conversation stirred up a whiff of anxiety and I came to a startling realisation. If we didn’t find an apartment before the New Year celebrations started, it was going to be at least another two weeks before we could start searching again. The reason for this being the fact that Chinese New Year lasts for almost an entire week. The problem was that we had less than a week and a half left in the hotel. Although we could stay on, it was rather expensive and we had just started a new job, so we didn’t have any money lying around.
A whole day went by before I heard back from Michael. He had contacted the landlord and managed to negotiate the price. However, we would still have to pay two months’ rent as deposit and three months’ rent in advance to be able to move in. This was way more than we could afford and I was starting to feel uneasy about the deal. He also informed me that the landlord wanted to meet, so that we good reach an agreement and finalise the contract. As with most Chinese salespersons, he was almost aggressive in trying to persuade me to take the deal. Unfortunately, or should I say, fortunately, the time he had specified for the meeting didn’t suit me, so I had to cancel.
On the other side of things, the situation was becoming more calamitous by the day. Not only did we not have any time left, but we were also struggling with our finances. We had some savings back home, but because of FNB’s 5-star service, we were unable to access it.
We were frantically comparing different options to find the most suitable solution. I even resorted to using a feasibility matrix, something I deemed quite useless during my university years. In retrospect, it was quite the hilarious situation and as stressful as it might have been, it is one of the most interesting chapters in our adventure.
On Thursday, the last day before Chinese New Year, I got another message from Michael. He was still trying to arrange a meeting between the landlord and myself. We had already decided to let that apartment go, so I told him that I wouldn’t be able to make it. During lunch, however, we discussed the offer once more. I decided that we should at least try to negotiate a better deal, seeing that we were out of options. I contacted Michael again and told him that our plans had changed and that we would be there after work.
That night we made our way to the small real estate office. Michael had already left for the holidays and the only guy left couldn’t speak a word of English. It smelled like a disaster from the moment we set foot in the office, but we decided to stay anyway.
We waited about 15 minutes for the landlord to arrive. He was a neatly dressed, middle aged Chinese man with a proper square cut. He wore a military style coat and he seemed quite disciplined in the way he moved. His spoken English was more than understandable and he had an air of wealth. To be frank, he wasn’t at all what we had expected. It almost seemed like he had missed the memo given to all the other landlords in the city.
We still had no intention of signing a contract, but as it is in China, the agent was already prepping the paper work. While we were waiting we struck up a conversation. It consisted of the usual small talk until he asked where we were from. After I had told him that we’re South Africans, the conversation took a wildly unexpected turn. He stuck out his hand and shook mine while uttering the phrase “Goeie dag!”. I was at a complete loss for words. So dumbfounded that all I could muster in response was to giggle like a grade 8 school girl. There I was, in the middle of Shanghai, being greeted in Afrikaans by a middle aged Chinese man. Of all the things I had imagined before coming to China, this wasn’t even a thought in my wildest dream.
It turned out that he had worked at the Chinese embassy in Johannesburg for almost 18 years. He was part of the military and did security work for the embassy. During this time he was also involved in a lot of business with native Afrikaans speakers and so he learned to speak the language. He told us that although he had forgotten most of it, he was still able to have basic conversations. Just hearing someone greet us in Afrikaans was already more than enough to blow our minds.
We took the landlord’s ability to speak Afrikaans as a sign from above and we decided to take the apartment. It was quite the experience to sign a contract that was exclusively in Chinese. I jotted down my signature, trusting in the good nature of our new landlord and the babbling estate agent. We moved into the apartment about four days later and have been living happily ever since.
We definitely took the road less travelled in terms of finding an apartment in Shanghai. Most of our friends stuck to the more traditional methods and ended up with deals far worse than ours. In the end, our efforts prevailed.
Check out our guide to finding an apartment in Shanghai – How to Rent an Apartment in Shanghai
