I'm looking for a furnished apartment for 10 months near Green Lake.
Do agents in Kunming help with finding apartments for less than a year?
Or should I just go the Airbnb route? Anyone have a recommendation for an agent near Green Lake? Is there anything I need to watch out for in a contract, if we end up finding an apartment and signing one?
Thanks!
I'm pretty sure you can find rental for 6 months through estate agents. Also check gokunming classifieds.
When in Rome...
More tech savvy locals would post their rentals on Mayiduanzu (蚂蚁短租，or Ant Short-term Rent):
Everything is negotiable, like most things in life. It helps to read/speak Chinese. No agent fees via this platform. Airbnb is also gaining traction in China. The sublet apartment hotel (酒店公寓) fad is booming.
One thing I can say, is there is a 10 month rental from Dachuan in GoKunming’s classifieds.
Don’t live there.
The apartment is a maintenance nightmare, and the landlord lives abroad and provides 0 support when things go wrong.
Also, for 500-1000 RMB more a month you can live in a modern building.
If you are coming from BJ, be prepared for an unwelcome surprise. Most landlords want 6 months or even a years rent up front. This seems to be peculiar to Kunming and can be a bit of a shock to the wallet.
Realtors will be the ones local to where you want to live, and every realtor will probably have every property for rent in their area. If you get a contract with the real estate agent, it will be a standard contract drawn up by local government to ensure that you are protected.
To add something more constructive and positive.
My wife and I recently moved into a new apartment, and it seems to be a buyers market.
We signed the lease around June 20th, but were able to negotiate a lease that officially began on July 5 (our previous lease ended on July 10) and ends on July 4, 2019 (our current contract ends on June 30th), but the landlord let us move in immediately (we didn’t ask to move in early, he just said we could move in whenever we wanted, we we signed the contract) giving us essentially two free weeks.
So, we were able to slowly move in over a few days, each time packing a DiDi car full of stuff, which was a luxury.
I would say, that it is probably possible to find a landlord willing to sign a 10 month lease.
My first lease in Beijing, which is a much hotter real estate market, was for 10 months (the landlord was willing to make my final day of the lease the final day of my work contract).
If the apartment is currently empty the landlord is not generating income from rent, it is in her best interest to rent it out as quickly as possible, even if on a lease that is less than a year.
@22Yossarian
If something with a rental apartment breaks or needs repair, is the renter responsible to get it fixed or is the landlord responsible?
This is the first time we will be renting in China so I want to be prepared. :)
Hi Breinhow,
It really depends on the landlord, some our honest some our not.
In my 5 years in China, I’ve had good and bad landlords.
Living in a modern building helps.
Many modern complexes have handymen who can fix most basic day to day issues, from replacing lightbulbs (the ceilings can be quite high, or light fixtures can be difficult to remove), to minor electrical issues (sockets, light switches, frayed wires), to basic plumbing (clearing a blocked pipe).
The handyman may charge a small fee, but it usually less than 50 RMB.
If there are problems with equipment, like the microwave or fridge breaks, the landlord should replace those for you, unless you obviously broke them.
It is a good idea when you check out the apartment, you check and make sure everything works, and you can make a list of things for the landlord to fix, (it is far easier to get things replaced before you sign the contract).
It seems really tempting to try and save 500-1000 RMB a month and live in an old building, but based on my experience it just isn’t worth it.
Also, I think landlords have greater incentive to maintain modern apartments.
Like much of China, there are massive construction projects all over Kunming, new apartments are being built all over the city.
My guess is that landlords in old buildings are probably playing a long game waiting for their building to be tagged for demolition, so they can be compensated.
There is a pretty hard cap in what they can collect for rent, so there isn’t much incentive to spend money on an old apartment, that may be torn down in a few years.
@22Yossarian
Thank you for all of your insight!
I would have never known that about the older buildings; we will definitely try to find a newer, modern building.
I'm in an older building (built about 1993, 7-floor buildings, no elevators) and have had none of these problems - been here 14 years in 2 apartments with 2 different landlords - but I don't know if this is typical. Present flat partially furnished.
