Scope: money. When renting, the places money is most easily lost are the deposit and the agent. When buying, the expensive parts are the interest on the loan, and the things the seller knows that you do not. The items near the end of the section are about buying: which account the money should go into, when the earnest money and the purchase price can be asked back, and what to do if handover is late. Also how to stop a seller selling the same home twice, and how to talk the mortgage rate down. The last two items are about after you move in: the property manager must not cut water or power to collect fees, and for a new home that leaks, go to the developer for repairs within the warranty period.
English, Russian and Spanish use dlgrv’s unofficial translations. Newly revised entries appear in the Chinese original until a checked translation is available. The author’s latest Chinese text is authoritative. Translation revision: dlgrv/HowToLiveBetter · b25fa8a
Write the deposit amount, return date and permitted deductions into the contract before signing. For circumstances not covered by the contract, the landlord cannot deduct your deposit at move-out without a legitimate reason.
Cost
No monetary cost. It only requires an extra ten minutes wh…
Benefit
The administrative regulation requires the landlord who takes a deposit to specify its amount, return time and…
Landlords must not cut water or power, change locks, or come to the door with threats to force you to end the lease or move out — the regulations forbid it. If it happens, call the police first and keep the evidence. Do not confront them yourself.
Cost
No cost at all. Just make a phone call to the police and t…
Benefit
Administrative regulations make it clear: “Landlords may not use violence, threats, or any other illegal means…
By rule, rent and deposits must not be collected or paid through an agent — pay the landlord directly. Every time the money passes through the agent, there is one more chance for them to take it and disappear. Before you pay, check that the payee’s name matches the name on the title certificate.
Cost
No cost at all. It takes just a few minutes to verify the…
Benefit
Administrative rules explicitly forbid real estate agencies from collecting or remitting rent and security dep…
Paying a full year at once gets you only a small discount. If the company absconds, your deposit and the remaining ten-odd months of rent may all be gone. A rent loan makes it worse: if the rental firm is gone, you still repay the loan monthly. Before signing, check whether it has a publicly disclosed funds supervision account.
Cost
No cost at all. It takes just a few minutes to verify.
Benefit
Regulations require any housing rental business that sublets units to set up a dedicated escrow account for re…
If a house is sold while you’re still renting it, your lease stays valid. The new owner must honor the original contract and let you live there until it ends. You won’t need to move out or renegotiate any terms. This only applies if you’re already living there legally; be sure to keep proof such as the lease, payment records, and documentation showing when you moved in.
Cost
No cost at all
Benefit
The Civil Code has a rule called “sale does not break lease”. The statute reads: a change of ownership of the…
Before signing, ask the landlord for ID and the property ownership certificate. Take your own ID to the property registry to check mortgages and seizures; you can do this before signing. If a property was mortgaged or seized before the lease and is auctioned to a new owner, you cannot demand to stay. Transfer every payment with its purpose noted as evidence.
Cost
Free. Take your ID to the property registry;
Benefit
Before signing a lease in China, the landlord must show ID and the property ownership certificate. Without a c…
When an agent collects the purchase price, the rules say it must go through the dedicated account the agency opened at a bank. That account is supervised; the money must not go into the agency’s own account, and must not be transferred to an individual broker.
Cost
No cost involved. The challenge is ensuring the payment go…
Benefit
The regulation is plain: where the parties agree that a real-estate brokerage will collect and pay the transac…
By rule, the smallest unit you may rent is the room as originally designed. Kitchens, bathrooms, balconies, and basement storage must not be lived in. During the lease the landlord also cannot raise rent unilaterally on a whim.
Cost
There’s no direct expense. The trade-off is that with the…
Benefit
The rules state clearly that the minimum rental unit is the originally designed room;
People with urban hukou must not go to the countryside to buy homestead land (宅基地), farmers’ houses, or “small-property-rights houses” (小产权房) — national documents expressly forbid it. A villager saying “a written contract is enough” does not make it work either. To live long-term in the countryside, sign a lease, at most 20 years per term, and renew when it ends.
Cost
No cost. The trade-off is that the house does not belong t…
Benefit
A State Council General Office document states clearly: “Urban residents must not purchase rural homestead lan…
An off-plan home is sold before it is finished. Without a presale permit, the developer may not sell it or collect a deposit. Under the rules, your down payment and mortgage must go entirely into the supervised account, with supervision lifted only when the home is ready for delivery. Money sent elsewhere is outside this protection.
Cost
No charge. It takes a few minutes to check the permit befo…
Benefit
An off-plan home is called a commercial-housing pre-sale in the regulations — the developer selling you a home…
If you paid reservation earnest money but no formal contract was signed, or the loan was not approved, look first at whose fault it is. If the cause is neither yours nor the developer’s, the developer must return the earnest money, or return the purchase money plus interest. Policy tightening after signing or the bank stopping lending generally counts as neither side’s fault. Overdue items on your own credit report or income that is not enough count as your cause, and you may not get the earnest money back.
Cost
No charge. Read the relevant clauses in the reservation ag…
Benefit
China’s Supreme People’s Court interpretation says that a deposit taken through a subscription, order or reser…
Unless the contract says otherwise, a difference of up to 3% between registered and contractual floor area is settled at the actual area. Above 3%, you may return the home; the developer must refund within 30 days with interest. Specific advertising promises about the development and its facilities that materially affect your purchase can be binding even if omitted from the contract.
Cost
No charge. Read the relevant clauses before signing and ta…
Benefit
China’s housing-ministry rules require contracts priced by floor area to specify how differences between contr…
If a developer delivers late, first send a written demand. If delivery still has not occurred within 3 months, you may terminate the purchase contract. If no contractual penalty is set, the developer compensates you based on rent for comparable homes in the same area. If its fault prevents you obtaining title, it also owes compensation; a delay exceeding 1 year after the registration deadline can also allow termination. If the developer asks you to decide, act within 3 months; otherwise decide within 1 year of learning you can terminate.
Cost
No charge. Write a demand, send it by courier and keep a c…
Benefit
The Supreme People’s Court interpretation provides that if the developer still fails to deliver within 3 month…
Before signing, take your identity card to the real-estate registration office and check whether this home is mortgaged or sealed, and whether it was registered to someone else first. Agree in the contract to file an advance-notice registration, and file it as soon as you have signed. After it is filed, if the seller sells again or mortgages again without your consent, the registration office will not process it. Once formal transfer is possible, you must go complete the transfer within 90 days; after that the advance-notice registration lapses.
Cost
Allow half an hour for an ID-based check before signing. A…
Benefit
China’s Civil Code allows parties who sign a home-purchase agreement to apply, as agreed, for advance-notice r…
Mortgage rates are the loan prime rate (LPR) plus or minus a spread. The spread used to be fixed at signing, but since 2024 you may negotiate a change with the bank. If your rate is noticeably higher than newly issued mortgages nationwide, ask about lowering it or replacing the old loan with a new one. On a 1-million-yuan, 30-year loan, a half-percentage-point reduction saves about 100000 yuan in interest.
Cost
No charge. Call the bank or apply through mobile banking;
Benefit
A 2024 announcement of the People’s Bank of China allows the borrower and the lender to negotiate a change in…
For a first home, a housing provident fund loan of more than 5 years is at 2.6%; the rate on newly issued bank mortgages around June (6) 2026 was about 3.1%. On a loan of 1000000 yuan over 30 years, using the fund for the whole amount costs about 96000 yuan less interest than a commercial loan for the whole amount. The fund has a loan ceiling; what it cannot cover can be topped up with a commercial loan — that is a combined loan.
Cost
No monetary cost. You may have to go to the housing provid…
Benefit
On 7 May (5) 2025 the People’s Bank of China issued a document lowering housing provident fund loan rates, eff…
The property manager must not cut water, power, heat, or gas to force you to pay property fees; if it happens, complain to the local real-estate authority. If the manager provided the contracted services, you cannot refuse to pay on the ground that you “did not use them”; if you still do not pay, it can sue. Unauthorized extra or duplicate charges you may refuse, and what you already paid you can get back.
Cost
No monetary cost. A phone call or a written complaint take…
Benefit
Article 944 of the Civil Code has three layers. The first is: “A property service provider must not collect pr…
When the developer hands over, it must give you a Residential Quality Warranty (《住宅质量保证书》). The contractor’s statutory minimum warranty periods are 5 years for leaks in bathrooms, roofs, and exterior walls, and 2 years for water and power lines and fit-out, all counted from completion acceptance. The warranty the developer gives you must not be shorter than what remains of the contractor’s warranty. If within the warranty period it will not repair or keeps delaying, you may hire someone yourself and the developer pays.
Cost
No monetary cost. Spend two or three extra hours on handov…
Benefit
Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development rules state that when selling commercial housing, the develope…
