Serviced Apartments are furnished apartments that are available for short-term and long-term stays, providing amenities, housekeeping and a range of guest services for guests. Often, utilities are included within the rental price, which makes for easier billing and budgeting.
Ever since Shanghai started booming in the early 90s, serviced apartments were a logical choice for expats coming to Shanghai due to a mix of convenience, service, and expectable housing quality. By now, Shanghai has around 7,000 serviced apartment units spread over various projects and all areas of the city, and it is increasingly hard to make a choice. Based on our assessment of facilities, provided service, location, and the feedback of our expat clients, these are our top 10 picks of serviced apartments in Shanghai. Check them out here:
Via http://haorealty.blogspot.com/2020/06/top-10-service-apartments-shanghai.html
0 Comments
Constructed by Shimao Group, Shimao Riviera Garden is a large Lujiazui riverside deluxe neighborhood covering a land of 275,000 square meters with a total construction area of 0.8 million square meters. Right opposite to the prosperous Bund and comprising seven 49-to-55-story high deluxe apartments, it extends 1km along the bank of Huangpu River and will become a new landmark building full of characteristics of the times on the East Bank of Huangpu River.
To fully use the rare river scenery resources, all main construction units are ranked in a line from north to south and in a shape of arc and well laid out to avoid blocking of sight which enables every household to face the river and enjoy beautiful scenery. The outside of the apartment is decorated together with light green glass wall and light-colored wall which establishes a steady foundation for the supreme grade of the riverside deluxe buildings in the neighborhood.
Together with East Pearl Tower, Jinmao Building and other super-high buildings, they present a city skyline in the east bank of the Huangpu River. Right opposite to the ancient universal buildings on the Bund, they display entirely new appearances of Shanghai as an international metropolis. The linear ranking of the building forms another unparalleled momentum. With this as the axis, the neighborhood is constructed with gardens and green areas with a total area of approximately 200,000 square meters, which is favorable to construct large world theme parks with unparalleled charms beyond the interrupted green lands among buildings.
The 6 world theme parks of Suzhou Garden, Hawaiian Beach, Germany Swan Lake, English Lawn, French Maze Garden and Olympic Games Park are relatively separately from others and present their own characteristic of different ages and regions, and all areas are connected by green lands among buildings.
Via http://haorealty.blogspot.com/2020/05/shimao-riviera-in-shanghai-lujiazui.html
UnlockShanghai.com just published a write-up about finding a good real estate agent or agency in Shanghai. We hope that following their tips you end up with us, but either way, wish you a smooth relocation to Shanghai.
Here is what hey say: 1. Ask lots of questions and do not fall for sky-scraping promises
Some expats make the mistake to pick the agent with the lowest price tags on their listings, believing that other agents charge a so-called “foreigner tax” and try to exploit unfamiliarity with the local property market.
This is true, we get plenty of inquiries from expats who first tried their luck with a different agency that was far too aggressive in their marketing efforts and could not deliver on the prices they promised.
2. Ask for references
When an agent or agency has caught your attention through interesting property listings or a good service package, don’t stop there. Ask if they are able to provide reviews, or even contact to a former client who can give you an idea of what it’s like to work with them.
We admit we are not very engaged in chasing references from our former clients, however are happy to connect with you with them. It is true that there are agents out there chasing inexperienced expats and take them for a ride, so working with one that has proven it is taking expat house hunting serious is advisable.
3.Search for an agency to take you all the way
As you face several challenges at once when relocating to Shanghai, a full-service agency can be a great choice as it helps to simplify the entire process: House hunting, negotiating, contract preparation, move-in inspection & protocol, household registration, setting up internet & utility payments, neighborhood orientation – the list is long.
Indeed it is, but worry not: HAO Realty ticks all those boxes. We make sure that all your relocation problems will be addressed and solved.Via http://haorealty.blogspot.com/2020/05/how-to-find-good-real-estate-agent-in.html
Shanghai’s housing market showed signs of recovery last month amid the release of pent-up demand.
About 25,000 2nd hand residential properties changed hands in April, a month-over-month increase of 62 percent. On a year-on-year basis, the number fell 5%, Shanghai Homelink Real Estate Agency Co said in its monthly report yesterday.
Existing homes worth a total 73.7 billion yuan (US$10.35 billion) were sold — a rise of 65 percent from the previous month but a 9 percent fall from April 2019.
“Last month’s robust sales should be viewed as a sign of resilience of the market, which is still recovering its strength steadily,” said Yang Yulei, a senior analyst with Homelink. “On the price side, the market seemed to have achieved some stability.”
Homes cost an average 38,593 RMB per square meter, which was almost unchanged compared to March.
Via http://haorealty.blogspot.com/2020/05/home-sales-recover-but-are-still-behind.html
Finding an apartment for rent in Shanghai can be hard. Local culture creates a preference for owning a home, which is a de-facto pre-requisite for marriage. The rental market is only a relatively small segment of the real estate industry in Shanghai. Since Shanghai is a migrant city, attracting Chinese and foreign talents alike, demand for good rental apartments is nevertheless high and attractive properties with a fair price tag rent out very fast, sometimes even within 24 hours.
In order to successfully find an apartment that can be your true home away from home in Shanghai, identifying your needs & requirements is necessary. Depending on your family situation, work or study place, interests, and available housing budget, different property types and locations are preferable. The Huangpu, Jing'an, Xuhui and Changning districts are the commercial and cultural center of Shanghai. Residential hotspots in this area are the former French Concession, Xintiandi, People's Square, Jing'an Temple, Xujiahui and Gubei. Seeing these areas are both very well listened to for singles as well as for families with children, make it exorbitant prices per visible permanent, family-sized fixture of the housing budget. Singles and couples can pay between RMB 7,000 and RMB 20,000 per month, while RMB 15,000 is the beginning of the spectrum for a 3-bedroom apartment. Via http://haorealty.blogspot.com/2020/05/knowing-shanghai-housing-market.html
Statistics released this week show that consumer spending in Hong Kong fell for the fourteenth consecutive month during March, and the slide in shopping is already squeezing some of the city’s largest landlords.
Link REIT, Wheelock Properties and other owners of shopping centres in the city have issued profit warnings in recent weeks, while the Hong Kong government has unveiled a HK$137.5 billion ($17.7 billion) stimulus package to prop up the local economy.
With social distancing measures emptying the city’s shopping malls, investors in retail property have retreated from the market, with local real estate agency Centaline Commercial reporting total investment in shops of just HK$5.19 billion during April – down 71 percent from the HK$17.92 billion recorded in the same month last year.
Wheelock and Link REIT Sound the Alarm
In a stock exchange announcement three days ago, Link REIT said that it would report a net loss for the year ending 31 March 2020 due to the impact of COVID-19 on the valuation of its properties and rental revenue.
With around 88 percent of its 8 million square feet of retail space in Hong Kong, the REIT – which is Asia’s largest – said that the value of its investment properties is expected to drop 12.3 percent to HK$193.2 billion, compared to HK$220.4 billion as of September 2019.
Just one week before Link REIT’s announcement, Wheelock Properties unit Wharf Reic – which owns luxury shopping complex Times Square in Causeway Bay – issued a profit warning predicting losses for the first half of 2020 due to “severe disruptions” caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Listed in 2017 after being spun off from Wharf Holdings, Wharf Reic holds an 11.7 million square foot portfolio of Hong Kong commercial properties worth HK$276 billion.
Rents Head Downhill as Sales Collapse
With retail sales falling by 42 percent in March compared with the same month last year, tenants have been reluctant to rush into signing new leases.
According to Centaline Commercial’s managing director, Stanley Poon, 1,156 commercial shop leases were secured in April – 36 percent fewer than the month before and down 25 percent from April 2019.
The city has seen retail sales fall continuously since January 2019, with COVID-19 topping off a series of disruptions in the city which include social unrest during the second half of last year and the US-China trade war.
“Retail sales continued to plummet in March, as the COVID‑19 pandemic and resulting anti-epidemic measures brought inbound tourism to a standstill and seriously disrupted consumption-related activities,” a government spokesman said in a statement.
The official added that the business environment for retail trade will remain “very difficult in the near term amid the deep economic recession and sharp deterioration in the labour market”.
With sales plummeting, rental values have also taken a hit, with high street rents falling by 10.3 percent in the first quarter of the year from the previous three months, according to property consultancy CBRE.
Half-Off Sale
With the outlook for the retail sector looking bleak, a landlord in Causeway Bay, last month put an en bloc commercial building up for sale, marking the first time in ten years that such an asset became available on the world’s most expensive retail strip.
The owners of 519-521 Hennessy Road are asking HK$1 billion for the rights to develop a new commercial tower on the site, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke to Mingtiandi.
In other parts of the city, some retail property owners have cut asking prices by up to 50 percent in a bid to attract buyers, with a street-front shop in Jordan changing hands last month for HK$19 million after the seller halved the asking price, according to a local media report.
Via http://haorealty.blogspot.com/2020/05/hong-kong-landlords-squeezed-as-retail.html
Green Court in Shanghai was built in 2001,It is a high-end expatriate compound offering luxurious apartments. All apartments in Green Court feature spacious layouts and are well equipped. Since some of the apartments belong to private owners, their decorations and furnishings may vary. The estate's design is contemporary western with lovely tiling. The compound's green areas and walkways are wide and clean, and tenants enjoy outstanding clubhouse facilities.
Situated in Green City / Biyun, residents also enjoy convenient access to supermarkets, dining, international schools, and cafes. Overall the area is peaceful and secure, and one of the best areas for expats in Shanghai. Via http://haorealty.blogspot.com/2020/05/shanghai-green-court-apartments.html
After a mandated shutdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a small factory making fitness accessories in China’s Hunan province roused back to life in late February. New measures mandated the wearing of protective gear, like masks, but otherwise production was back on track.
While much of the world contends with lockdown, China started easing restrictions on businesses and society at large when COVID-19 cases started to fall just over a month ago.
And it’s not just the factories restarting. Workers are also returning to offices. Mobility between cities and provinces is resuming slowly, alongside domestic tourism. Shopping centers and restaurants are reopening – albeit within a strict social distancing framework.
The road to a full recovery, according to experts, remains long and difficult. But there are signs of one emerging.
“While heightened caution remains in place, evidence of a resumption of economic activity in specific sectors is providing insights into what the first green shoots in individual economies may look like,” says Roddy Allan, chief research officer, Asia Pacific, at JLL. “China could be a glimpse into the future for elsewhere.”
To be sure, the pace of economic growth is likely to remain slower than before the outbreak, with workers still in the process of returning to their jobs. Factory activity expanded in March, but economists warned it might not hold up in the face of a global recession. Roads and public transportation across China have yet to be fully up and running.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has brought most industries to a standstill, but some have seized the potential growth opportunities,” says Allan. “We’re observing brighter spots in specific industries less reliant on trade and offshoring.”
Green Shoots Appearing
One such industry is technology. Enterprises involving big data, cloud platforms, and artificial intelligence have proven to be essential services during the outbreak. Appealing to China’s enormous domestic consumer base, the digital economy appears to have weathered the storm relatively well, Allan says.
One major domestic digital company, which completed a sizable investment into a media company, is poised to expand its floor space in Shenzhen. Also, in the Guangdong tech hub, a rapidly expanding e-commerce provider, will take up more than 20,000 square meters of office space as it consolidates its business and sets up a regional headquarters.
This resilience during the pandemic is popping up most quickly in tech-focused business districts. High-Tech Park in Shenzhen’s Nanshan District – the precinct with the highest concentration of Internet services companies in the city – is one of only two precincts where occupancy levels remained stable in the first quarter, according to Grade-A office market data from JLL.
Other industries that weathered the storm include insurance providers, which saw demand for cover spike during the outbreak, and online entertainment, which has seen a boost during lockdown, according to JLL data.
“The green shoots are sprouting and all are essentially linked with domestic demand, as opposed to traditional barometers like trade,” says Allan.
Green Shoots, But Not Out of the Woods
The way China dealt with the COVID-19 outbreak through lockdowns across cities has become a roadmap for other countries, says Peter Liu, Supply Chain Consulting Director, JLL China. “Once the critical stage passed, they could go back to work,” he noted.
But Liu points out that challenges remain. With COVID-19 now a global pandemic, China is up against declines in global demand. Domestically, even though labour shortages have now been addressed with workers back in full force since late March, “there is still a huge backlog of orders to catch up on, plus a lack of specialised parts from other low-tier suppliers in China.”
Recovery is also uneven across industries. Factories that are not as dependent on parts and materials are likely to recovery faster, as are those producing goods more in demand. For instance, toy maker Hasbro has seen increased demand for products like Play-Doh and Monopoly during the outbreak, with many families staying in. Its production in China has mostly returned to normal.
As the virus continues to reshape livelihoods and economies in ways thought unthinkable three months ago, the focus will rightly remain on the health and security of people, communities, and businesses.
Mainland China will continue to experience social and economic hardships for some time.
“Countries globally will feel the pinch of COVID-19 for the foreseeable future, and the true impact on economies will not be truly understood for some time,” Allan says. “While not indicative of a return to normalization, the green shoots emerging in Mainland China might provide other economies with a window of how the first phase of a recovery will present.”
Via http://haorealty.blogspot.com/2020/05/eyes-turn-to-china-for-signs-of.html
At HAO Realty, we have built a strong 360° service package to help expats making the move to Shanghai. A relocation needs comprehensive preparation and expert-level knowledge to avoid negative surprises. HAO Realty can help you with:
Visa & ImmigrationDo you need a Chinese visa, a residence/work permit or have any immigration related questions? We have you covered! For the past 10+ years, HAO Realty has supported MNEs and their foreign employees incl family members to obtain Chinese visa. Our in-house immigration team, along with our relocation consultants, make every step of your move a completely stress-free experience. Please send us a detailed enquiry about your Chinese immigration plans, so we have a better understanding how we can be of help. We will guide you every step of the way until you are fully settled in your new environment. Our history shows that HAO Realty proudly owns a record of immaculate service. Our visa and immigration services include but are not limited to:
City OrientationWe fully understand that accepting an overseas assignment is a big decision for any individual and even more so for a family. Our City Introduction Tours are a great way to familiarize newcomers in a new city and to answer some of their immediate concerns. The program is fully customizable to the newcomers’ requirements. Our Orientation includes but is not limited to:
Short-term housingWhether you are in town on a short-term project or you need a place to stay until your permanent home becomes available, we will find you a comfortable temporary home in Shanghai that will fit your needs (minimum of one month rental required). Our consultants know the best available offers of Shanghai' service apartments and have good experience for finding just the right temporary fully equipped accommodation ready to move in.Home FindingOur viewing service is always conducted by a bilingual local consultant who can answer any and all questions with in-depth knowledge. In a multiple listings system market, our professional property consultants, who understand the local property market, are your invaluable resource. Finding a place to live is undeniably at the top of the list for every expat family. Our in-house property consultant team has deep knowledge of the leasing market, no matter if you are looking for a turnkey apartment in Shanghai downtown, or a large family villa in Shanghai's suburbs, and is able to quickly respond to requests from proposals as well as offer the best advice. Our consultants gather all the necessary information about you and your family and provide sound advice completely tailored to your needs so you will have the confidence of making an educated decision.
Settling-In ServiceYour relocation consultant will provide you with details on the area, culture, local practices, and laws. He/she will also provide you with useful tips about utilities and internet providers, bank account opening, mobile phone packages, the use of apps to order a taxi/uber/didi, meals, groceries, about the metro network etc. Our utilities costs estimation tool will help you get a rough idea of how much these expenses will be. The overview and material will include, but is not limited to, commuter options, traffic times, schools, security, recreation options, utilities, and local registration practices.
Educational SupportNewly arriving families that are moving with school-aged children need to carefully select a school which will meet the educational needs of each individual child. So for families, this point overshadows even the housing search. We designed a school map on our website that enables you to gather all essential information about schools. Our educational assistance service includes information about:
Tenancy ServiceOur Tenancy Management Service covers:
Departure ServiceOur Departure Service is an integral part of your experience and it means that you will remain focused on your job right up to the last day. Our consultant will work out a departure timeline which includes lease termination, deposit return as well as dealing with any potential damage to the property if any. Some of the provided services include, but are not limited to:
Via http://haorealty.blogspot.com/2020/05/relocation-support-shanghai-china.html
All foreigners are required to register within 24 hours upon arriving at a new residence in China. If you are staying in a hotel, they will take care of it for you, but if you are moving into your own apartment or staying with a friend or family member, it is important to follow the right procedure. In the past this procedure required you to walk to the nearest (or rather the right) police station, bring your passport incl a photocopy of its personal information page, as well as your visa or residence permit, your rental contract (original and photocopy), your landlord's ownership certificate, and a photocopy of your landlord's id. If you are on a visa, you would also need to go to the police station everytime after leaving from and subsequently returning to China, or if your visa/residence permit changed.
From now on, all police stations in Shanghai support self-declaration. Following flyer is handed out at some of them: Link to the self-declaration website: https://crjzndg.gaj.sh.gov.cn/24hr Via http://haorealty.blogspot.com/2019/10/you-can-now-register-online-with.html |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |