Chinese people tell you how to rent a house in Shenzhen

Foreigners who plan to come to Shenzhen or are already in Shenzhen, if you come to study, work or do business, and need to live in Shenzhen for a long time, the first problem you need to solve is renting a house in Shenzhen. As a local in Shenzhen, I will share with you the prices of renting houses in Shenzhen and some precautions.

Administrative divisions in Shenzhen

Let me first introduce the basic situation of Shenzhen. Shenzhen is one of the four major cities in China, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen.

Shenzhen is located in the south of China and is a coastal city with a total of 9 administrative districts, Futian, Luohu, Nanshan, Yantian, Baoan, Longgang, Longhua, Pingshan and Guangming. In addition, Shenzhen has 1 functional new district, namely Dapeng New District. Among them, Futian and Luohu are the city center, and Baoan, Longgang, Pingshan, Guangming, Longhua and Dapeng New Districts are the suburbs of Shenzhen.

It is also very convenient to get from Shenzhen to Hong Kong. You can take the high-speed rail, subway, bus or ship, which takes about an hour, and the high-speed rail only takes 18 minutes.

Look at the map. I have marked it for you. The red circle is the prosperous central urban area of Shenzhen. The rent and living expenses are more expensive than the surrounding areas.

How much does it cost to rent a house in Shenzhen?

According to the data of the real estate rental website, the average rent in Shenzhen in October 2024 is RMB 94.70/month/㎡, among which Nanshan is the highest, at RMB 137.36/month/㎡.

If you want to rent a 70-square-meter two-bedroom and one-living room, how much is the monthly rent?

Based on the average rent of each district, I calculated the rent reference values of several districts.

Nanshan: 137.36*70 = 9615 RMB

Futian: 123.30*70 = 8631 RMB

Luohu: 87.95*70 = 6156 RMB

Longhua: 74.72*70 = 5230 RMB

Baoan: 73.14*70 = 5119 RMB

In the core business district where housing prices are relatively expensive, the rental price will be about 40% higher than the average price I calculated above.

In addition to rent, what other expenses need to be paid?

Renting a house in China includes the following expenses in total, rent, rental deposit, agency service fee, property fee, water fee, electricity fee, and gas fee. I will explain them in this article.

If you rent a serviced apartment, some fees will be included in the room rate.

How is the real estate agency service in Shenzhen?

When you walk on the streets of Shenzhen, you will see many real estate agency stores, especially near residential areas. You can consult the real estate agency about the apartment you need, and they will take you to see the house according to your needs. It is free for the real estate agent to take you to see the house. Only when you are satisfied with the house and accept the rent price, will the contract be signed and the payment be made.

Before signing the contract, you do not need to pay any fees to the agent. Even if the agent does not have a house that meets your needs for the time being and needs to help you find other houses, you do not need to pay for it.

Real estate agency service commission

When renting a house in Shenzhen or other places in China, the real estate agency fee is usually the amount of one month's rent, and the tenant and the landlord each share half.

For example, if the monthly rent of the house is RMB 4,000, then you need to pay RMB 2,000 to the agent, and the landlord also needs to pay RMB 2,000 to the agent. This fee is paid to the real estate agent in one lump sum when the contract is signed. Whether you rent for one year or two years, you only need to pay the agency service fee once.

If the landlord asks you to bear all the agency service fees, you can negotiate with the landlord. This situation will be rare and not in line with industry practices.

What other fees are required for renting a house in Shenzhen

Houses in China are bought out in one go by the owner, and there is no need to pay property taxes to the state every month like in some countries.

Property management fees

After renting a house, the tenant needs to pay property management fees, which cover a number of services such as cleaning, sewage treatment, garbage disposal, greening maintenance, and community security. The property management fee is calculated based on the area of the house, that is, how much per square meter, generally between 2 and 4 yuan, but the specific price will vary depending on the construction time and property service standards of each community.

For example, if you rent a house with an area of 70 square meters and the property fee is 4 yuan per square meter, then the total monthly property fee is 280 yuan. Property fees are usually charged on a monthly basis and need to be paid every month.

It should be noted that when renting a house in China, the property fee is generally borne by the tenant. If you rent a serviced apartment, the rent may or may not include the property fee, so be sure to confirm it when signing the contract.

Water, electricity and gas charges

Water, electricity and gas charges in China are relatively cheap because the government will set price limits and does not allow high charges. Gas charges may be higher than those in major natural gas producing countries because China's energy mainly relies on imports. But China's electricity charges are very cheap, allowing everyone to use electricity freely.

China's electricity charges are charged according to a ladder. The general principle is that the more you use, the more expensive it is. Due to the complexity of the algorithm, this article will not elaborate on it in detail. The average electricity price is about RMB 0.7 per kWh.

Example: Among all electrical appliances, the most power-consuming is the air conditioner. A one-horsepower air conditioner uses about 1 kWh of electricity per hour, which is about RMB 0.7. Assuming you turn on the air conditioner for 10 hours a day and use 300 kWh of electricity a month, it will cost RMB 210.

Tap water charges

China's water prices are also charged according to a ladder. The average water supply price in Shenzhen is RMB 3.4 per cubic meter (tax included).

Example: Two people live together, and the cost of washing machine, bathing, and cooking water is about 50 to 100 RMB per month. Compared with the cost of rent, this part of the cost is not much.

Gas fee

Gas is mainly used for cooking and bathing. Most water heaters for bathing are gas water heaters. Even the kitchen faucet is connected to a gas water heater in many houses, which can use hot water 24 hours a day.

The price of gas fee is about 4.42 yuan/cubic meter. For a family of two people, cooking one meal a day, plus the gas used for bathing, the monthly cost is less than 100 RMB.

Rental deposit

The rental deposit is to prevent the tenant from maliciously damaging the room. In order to avoid this kind of loss, the landlord will collect 2 months' rent as a deposit, and then return it to the tenant after the contract expires. I don't know if there is such a form of rental deposit in other countries, but there is such an item for renting a house in China.

For example: if the rent is 5,000 RMB per month, you need to pay the landlord 10,000 RMB as a rental deposit when signing the contract.

Fee payment and process

We have listed all the fees clearly. Let's take a look at when you need to pay these fees.

When signing the rental contract, you need to pay 1 month's rent, 2 months' deposit and real estate agency service fee.

The landlord will send you a bill for property fees, water fees, electricity fees and gas fees after one or two months. You pay the money to the landlord and the landlord pays on your behalf. You don't need to pay it to the power company and the water company separately.

If you live in China, you must use Alipay and WeChat, at least one of them. Chinese people use WeChat very frequently, and I personally recommend you to use WeChat.

When signing the contract, add the landlord as a WeChat friend. If you encounter problems, you can contact the landlord directly through WeChat. Property fees can also be transferred directly to the landlord through WeChat payment, which is very convenient.

How long is the lease for renting a house in Shenzhen?

In China, renting a house is rented on an annual basis, and you need to sign a one-year lease contract with the landlord. If you rent a house through a real estate agency, you need to sign a tripartite contract with the landlord and the agency. After one year, if you want to renew the lease, you can sign a renewal contract directly with the landlord without going through a real estate agent, and both you and the landlord can save an agency service fee.

If you do not renew the lease after the expiration, the landlord will return your rental deposit. If you check out early, the deposit will not be returned to you, and you will be liable for breach of contract.

Now some apartments in Shenzhen can be rented for short periods of time, such as 1 month or 3 months. You need to negotiate with the landlord. There are relatively few residential houses or apartments that can be rented for short periods of time. Landlords prefer to rent them by year. The shorter the rental period, the higher the average daily rental price will be.

Some precautions during the rental period

During the rental period, you should not maliciously damage the house. The landlord may ask you for compensation according to the terms of the contract.

For example, you cannot scribble on the wall. If you need to install electrical appliances and drill holes in the wall, you must seek the consent of the landlord, otherwise it will be considered as damage to the house.

If you encounter problems such as broken appliances or leaking faucets during the rental period, you can directly contact the landlord and ask the landlord to find someone to repair it. In principle, as long as it is not man-made damage by you, the tenant does not need to bear these repair costs.

After the rental contract expires, you need to clean the house and hand it over to the landlord. If you don’t have time to clean, you can pay a certain fee to let the landlord hire someone to clean. It is the default rule of the industry for the tenant to clean, which is different from staying in a hotel.

Written at the end

The basic situation of renting a house in Shenzhen is introduced here. If you want to know more details, you can contact me. As a Shenzhen native, I believe I can give you some useful suggestions.