SmartShanghai housing is Shanghai's longest running English language housing classifieds. Here are a few frequently asked questions, and we'll try to clarify some common misperceptions.

Is it safe to rent an apartment on SmartShanghai?

Apartments on our site get posted by private users or local housing agencies, not SmartShanghai itself. Hence, we only have limited control over the actual quality of our listings and the services the agents provide. We do, however, put great effort to make sure we are one of the safest ways of finding an apartment in Shanghai.

• Agencies that post on our site have to submit their business license, and we only accept agencies that have the legal requirements to act as a property agency.
• We verify the identity of all agents that post on our site through a real-name verification system. If something goes wrong, at least we know the actual identify of the agent and can help report things to local authorities.
• Agencies pay fixed listings fees to use our site, and while this is an important part of our revenue, we always side with the user and remove agencies that violate our listings policies.
• We have full-time moderators looking at every listing on our site to make sure they follow our listings guidelines.

Are there many fake listings on SmartShanghai?

Fake listings are a very common thing in the housing industry in China as a way for agents to get leads without having to bother uploading real listings. You'd respond to a really nice-looking apartment listing, and then hear from the agent, "sorry that one just rented out, can you please let me know what you are looking for?"

This is, of course, very annoying for apartment seekers and something we've been fighting against ever since we launched our housing section. Here is what we do:

• Agents (even with paid accounts) will be blocked from our site if they post fake listings. They essentially risk loosing access to their paid accounts on SmartShanghai.
• Listings on our site only stay up for two weeks to avaid having outdated listings, and they must be deleted once the apartment is rented out.

We ask our users for feedback and monitor conversations between agents and our users to ensure these policies are respected.

Having this said, it is of course always possible that an apartment did just rent out and the agent wasn't informed and didn't have a chance yet to remove the listing.

Are prices inflated because it's an English site targeting foreigners ?

Actually, the opposite is true. Let us explain:

In Shanghai, it is common for landlords to work with multiple agencies, resulting in the same apartment being listed by different agencies on our site. This setup fosters direct competition among the agencies, ensuring full transparency. If an agency were to inflate the price beyond the landlord's asking price, they would lose potential tenants to other agencies that list the apartment at the actual price.

In fact, what often happens is the opposite: agencies may list the apartment at a lower price than the landlord's asking price to attract more attention.

Here's an example: Suppose a landlord's asking price for a 2-bedroom apartment is 18,000 RMB. Agent A might list it for 17,000 RMB on SmartShanghai, anticipating they can negotiate it down to that price. Seeing this, Agent B might list the same apartment for 16,500 RMB to appear more attractive than Agent A. This creates a downward spiral, where prices are continuously undercut.

To prevent this, we request agencies to provide the landlord's asking price (18,000 RMB in this example) to us. We monitor and remove listings with unrealistically low (or high) prices to ensure fairness.

Therefore, no agency would post an apartment above the landlord's asking price. Competition and transparency on our site lead to fair and accurate pricing.

However, by targeting an international audience who typically seek downtown apartments with more upscale decorations and amenities, the average prices listed on our platform may appear higher than those found on local sites. Local real estate listings often include a broader range of properties, including those that may not appeal as much to foreigners, such as apartments in less desirable locations or with more basic interiors. This distinction in audience and property types can account for the higher overall averages seen in our listings compared to more general local real estate platforms in Shanghai.

But still the best option would be to walk into a streetside local agency?

No. Usually, what happens is this:

• Agents get paid a commission, so they have an interest that you're renting the apartment at the highest possible price. Now, without having the transparency that we described above why would they help you get the price down if that actually cuts into their commission?
• Local agencies don't understand the taste of foreign customers very well, and you'd most likely be wasting a lot of time looking at older apartments with thick brown curtains and chandeliers.

What 's the deal with seconds landlords? Is that legal?

Second landlords (二房东) rent apartments from the owners, renovate them and then rent them out at a higher price. In the past, second landlords have had a bad reputation, but in the last few years, most of them have developed into professional property management companies that often provide a much better service than an actual landlord would. Many of them manage hundreds of apartments, which allows them to have resources for maintaining and managing apartments that individual landlords don't have (or don't want to offer).

The other upside is that they often have much better taste and interior design skills, so a lot of the modern, well renovated apartments are from second landlords. There's nothing wrong with second landlords.

Can I post my apartment on SmartShanghai?

Yes, please.

• For private individuals: It's 100% free for private individuals to post one listing, so if you are looking for someone to take over your lease, or look for a flatmate in your apartment, go ahead and post it through our website, app or WeChat MiniProgram.
• For agents: Agents pay a fixed monthly fee. Here's our price list. We do not take a commission from agents.

Further reading:

Here are a few more articles we recommend reading:

• 25 Tips for renting an apartment in Shanghai has plenty of useful tips.
• In [Talk to My Lawyer]: "Help! My Landlord Is Screwing Me!" we asked a lawyer about common legal issues with renting an apartment in Shanghai
• And here's a list of common scams you should read to avoid getting into trouble.

Contact Us

If you have a question or would like to report an issue with a listing or agent on our site, please feel free to reach out to us. We have a full-time moderation team and will take any inquiry seriously.