Home › Forums › Arriving In China + @the school + Accommodations › What is the cost of an apartment in China? What should I expect?
Here is an example
Here is a second example
Each school handles apartments slight different.
When searching, we try to show the way the school prefers to support. Some will offer money towards and some will offer free, while others will simple offer a higher salary and not put money towards accommodations.
When possible we highly recommend that teachers arrive first, stay in a hotel for a few days and look at different apartments. Find one that you like provided that the school helps you find a place.
Sometimes photos are shown before and that is better than nothing, but photos can definitely be different that reality. Even video doesn’t usually give the same feel as being there in person. There are some schools that offer a free apartment, which is also nice and if you are quite flexible then awesome, but sometimes what one person thinks is a nice apartment may be completely different than someone else.
To start, it is good to understand what NOT to expect. If you are well off and expect to have a nice back yard, lots of space and a few rooms then you will quickly realize that most families live in a 1-bedroom place in China (and Asia for that matter). You can pay more and you can find a nice apartment but it is not unheard of to pay double (0r at least 50%+ more) if you want an extra room, etc. and it is best to expect a one bedroom (fairly small) apartment.
I think teachers coming from big cities that have lived by themselves in a single apartment in the big city will be fine with their mindset but it is best not to have huge expectations and it is sometimes a challenge to get into a new building.
The example teacher apartments below cost around 2000 to 3000 RMB per month. If you want something in a more posh area or you want a number of rooms, then the price goes higher. Larger cities, like Beijing, would be more but also have more options for foreign teachers and for sharing. Around 4,000 or 5,000 RMB is normal. (remember that RMB, Yuan, Reminbi, etc are all the same meaning and mainland China only has one currency)
It is also important to understand that deposits are often needed, so if the school is not able to support for an accommodation deposit, you are not taking over the apartment from another teacher, or sharing with current people, then you will probably need to be able to cover the starting fees/deposit amount (generally a couple months rental amount paid to the landlord).
