Job Discussion Forums

[Paulusmack]

Howdy Folks,

I might have a job offer in Shanghai with a salary of 11k yuan per month but the housing costs are on me. I'm told I can get an apartment in the city center for around 3,000-3,500. Three questions:

1.What should the total move-in costs be, i.e. what is the usual deposit?
2.Are cheaper apartments available?
3.Do you think the salary offer is adequate given the housing is not
provided?

I really appreciate any information you have. Thanks!

Paul

[The Great Wall of Whiner]

1.What should the total move-in costs be, i.e. what is the usual deposit?

Often, you pay the entire rent up-front for a year, plus 50% extra as a deposit.

2.Are cheaper apartments available?

Yes, but you get what you pay for.

3.Do you think the salary offer is adequate given the housing is not
provided?

No, I don't, but depends on your working hours.

You can work outside of Shanghai, earn the same salary, AND have housing given to you. AND, live cheaper than Shanghai.

China is no longer cheap; Shanghai even less so.

[Paulusmack]

Thanks for the straight talk, Whiner. Those were the answers I was hoping not to get but better to find out now than when I arrive expecting to slide into a pad by only paying one month in advance. The cost of living index I was looking at wasn't joking, I guess.

Next offer, please!

[Lobster]

You can also sometimes rent an apartment on the following basis:
3 months' advance rent + 1 month's rent as deposit. Negotiate!

Cheaper apartments may be available, but they're on the outskirts and older. So you may be able to pin down a place on the seventh floor of a seven-floor walk-up in NanHui for 2800, but you'd be looking at a hideous commute.

In the above scenario, move-in costs would be 14k on an apartment going for 3.5. Add another 2k for utility, phone and internet hookup.

Cost of living:
Rent 3.5k
Spending 4.0k
Savings 3.5k

So yeah, if these are net earnings you can get by and have a decent life in Shanghai on this wage. But what GWOW says is totally true:

[Non Sequitur]

For all China newbies looking at offers the three most important factors are (in order):
Package
Package
Package

[Beyond1984]

"I might have a job offer in Shanghai...the housing costs are on me." -paulusmack

Another cost to consider when contemplating a job in Shanghai (or Beijing) is the price your lungs will pay:

"According to a report in today�s China Daily, Shanghai�s air pollution index has broken 100 on eight days so far this month, at one point reaching 370�the worst reading in 10 years.

Scary stuff, no doubt. But compare that to last week in Beijing, when air pollution readings from a monitoring station at the U.S. Embassy soared past 500�a level so astonishing it prompted the embassy�s automated air pollution Twitter feed (which usually rates Beijing�s air quality on a scale from �Good� to �Hazardous�) to add a completely new rating: �Crazy Bad.�

This story was posted 11/25/10. The number of cars on the roads of first-tier cities continues to climb ... probably pollution levels are getting worse, not better.

http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2010/11/25/shanghai%e2%80%99s-air-bad-but-crazy-bad/

-HDT

As I have noted on another thread, the Chinese government dropped the ball, grievously, when it spread itself wide open in welcoming western-style car culture.

[YAMARI]

Great wall of whiner saying one years rent up front is complete b.s.

its 2 months deposit and one months rent and 35% agent fee on one months rent.

11000 no rent is low for shanghai unless its really small hours- wall street pays 16000 no rent.

place wont be downtown and nice for 3500.

you can live 20 minutes out in a small palce ofr 3500.