Guest Post: Apartment Hunting in Shenzhen

by | Nov 13, 2013 | China | 0 comments

 

Shenzhen

Shenzhen

Today I’d like to introduce R., an Austrian illustrator and a graduate of Chinese studies who lives with her Chinese husband in Shenzhen, China. I met R. on her blog chinaelevatorstories where she writes in the present tense about her life and the people she meets every day, taking you right along with her on a romantic walk, a taxi ride, a massage appointment and more. She tells you how she met her husband not so very long ago and even shares their pre-wedding photos. Very romantic. I think you’ll enjoy her positive attitude as much as I do.

 Looking for a clean apartment, not too small, not too expensive

 Two weeks ago, my husband and I had to look for a new apartment in Shenzhen. Our contract was running out and our landlady wanted her apartment back. Apartment hunting in China is not entirely new to me, but the experience we had this time was.

We went to many residences nearby and asked if they had any apartments for rent. When we couldn’t find what we were looking for – a clean, big enough and not overpriced apartment, if possible with furniture, we went to a real estate firm. As soon as we entered, the employees surrounded us like a swarm of bees. We told them what kind of place we were looking for and sure enough, the next day they showed us around all day long. There was only one apartment that we considered suitable – if they talked down the price a bit. So that’s what one of the agents did.

When we went to the apartment to sign the contract, one of the agents waited there with us. He told us that the landlady was late, probably stuck in a traffic jam. After waiting for two hours, we decided to wait at home and let them call us once she arrives. I didn’t think much of it, but my husband had a bad feeling about it. A little later, the property agent called. He told us that the landlady had found another person to rent the flat for the original price. My husband went there to clarify things.

When he came back in the evening, he apologized to me: “I’m sorry, I couldn’t get them to leave it to us. The property agents probably set us up.”

I’m pretty sure they did. It must have been the one property agent who talked down the price. When we left the apartment the day we saw it, he got a call by the landlady. He seemed destroyed and told us that the landlady didn’t agree to give them the original sum. What he didn’t tell us though – and what I think was the case – was that she would have given them much less than she should have. It couldn’t only have been the 200 Kuai (around 32.8 USD) that he talked her down, because that wouldn’t have amounted to much in the end.

 Something better will come our way.

Although what the property agent did wasn’t very nice, I have come to the understanding that he did it out of necessity. You don’t earn a lot as a property agent. This one agent is married to a Taiwanese woman and both the woman and his one-year-old child live in Taiwan. He’ll go there in about half a year’s time to live with them. He probably needs to support them, and maybe he needs to support his parents and grandparents back home. If the landlady cut most of the payment, there wouldn’t have been much left and all their work would have been for nothing. In order to save face, they told us that the landlady had ordered another real estate firm to help her find somebody to rent it.

That one evening, my husband said: “Things always happen for a reason. Don’t be too sad about it. Often, if something like this happens, it’s because something better will come your way.” And surely enough, not much later we found a clean apartment that was not only cheaper than the above one, but also came without the fees for a property agent.

 

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  1. Apartment hunting in ShenzhenChina Elevator Stories - […] for me recently. Here’s an excerpt of the one I’ve written for her, which is about apartment hunting in…
  2. Guest post for Behind the Story: Apartment Hunting in Shenzhen | China elevator stories - […] for me recently. Here’s an excerpt of the one I’ve written for her, which is about apartment hunting in…

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