Buying our first house together.

[Irishman]

Sunny and I are house hunting at the moment and by now must have looked at about 20 properties.
Its exciting and a little tiring to be honest but overall wonderful thinking about OUR future home together.

She told me a strange thing today, we were talking about some of the properties we had looked at and I mentioned one I like.
Its a detached (single family home I think Americans call it instead) bungalow in a nice area close to my folks, a couple of shopping centres and where I grew up as well as work, so it ticks a lot of boxes for me.
Anyhow, she said she would tell her mother we bought an apartment if we bought it?? I said what??!! why would you tell her that!?
She said that Chinese people want at least two story houses, only poor people buy bungalows!! She said she thinks this dates back to something Mao said about the Chinese dream of owning a house with running water, electricity, phone connection and on separate storys!

She said she can see how here people don't think like that at all but her parents wouldn't understand why we would "only" get a single story home and would worry that we have a poor lifestyle here so she would prefer to tell them we got a nice big apartment instead!

Anyone else heard something like that, and any other house related strange things I should be ready for??!!

[Willy The Londoner]

Not actually heard that but I think I came across the same principal when searching for a home in Zhongshan.

We too looked at about 20 properties and when viewing some i noticed that there was often empty apartments on the ground floor in the complexes.  They were poo pooed as not being suitable. When asked why I was told that there is always a problem with insects and people never bought them to leave in themselves.

Maybe this is another way of saying that only the poor live in such places. 

But then again where I lived in London only the very old, like me, lived in bungalows.  Because climbing stairs got difficult!

Willy

[Pineau]

When I bought my place in YiYang I purchased on the 2nd floor. During the hunting and purchasing I heard o couple of things that ring true.


The further up you get the better ventilation you will get.

The bottom floor us usually damp and moldy and has a musty odor. It is a real problem in YiYang. Some friends said in the older places the floors get wet and ooze during the rainy season.

Most of the places I looked at did not have any houses on the first floor. Those were snatched up by merchants during construction.

[maxx]

Irish never heard that before.The things my wife wants with a house.Is a fenced yard.Trees.And a flower box.And some grass.She said no two storiy houses.She is worried about the kids falling down the stairs.

[Jan]

Only thing that I've heard. Is that she wants to make it a "lovely house". As in Pink, and flowery and cute things... I don't really care as long as she is happy. But this is still some time in to the future luckily, I can enjoy my messy apartment without any style until that.

[Vince G]

Here in the states the higher up the floor your on in the building the better off you are. it all Status. Landlord, manager, maintenance and such have the first floor. One excuse is the higher the floor the less the street noise. Hotels do this as well.

A bungalow here is a small one floor house. At one time was a vacation home for the city folk. 

[Irishman]

Interesting viewpoints, I guess its a cultural thing.
Well, we have decided to go for the apartment house! Lifes to short to worry about what a mother in law thinks 10,000K away...or is that famous last words!!

[Clayton]

It's a funny thing this status thing with housing, I just got off talking with my wife and i asked her about lower class living on the bottom floor and her answer was , what is lower class?  Anyway my house, like most Australians, is a bungalow  style house and it makes no difference to Yan where we live as long as it is with me. bonus.

I get though that the higher up your apartment is the more you pay, I would rather live up a few floors if i had to live in the city, just for the view.

Cheers   Leeroy

[Jason B]

Mate, we are going through the same thing at the moment.  Trying to find a good place.  Not too far from the city for as far as Xia is concerned we may as well be on a farm if there is no tall buildings around.  Must be people, noise and traffic around too.  Add to the list that we now have to find somewhere that she can turn into a nusery and you will have some idea of the frustration I feel everytime I think I have an ideal place.

We have an appointment with the money man on Friday so when we know our price range that should narrow the search a bit more.

As for the floor or type of dwelling I do not think she has any preference, well she has not said anything to me about it.  Just where is my millions hiding so we can buy a place overlooking Sydney Harbour.

[Willy The Londoner]

Someone asked me,off Forum, why I bought a home in China as it will only be ours for just under 70 years.

Well if I bought a home in London I would have paid ten times the price and still would not have owned it for much longer than in China.

But as I do not think, by any stretch of the imagination,  that I have 70 years left then it will not be a problem for me or either my wife come to that. Just that she will always have somewhere to live after I,  presumably, leave this life ahead of here.

Properties in London are nearly all on leasehold and most of these started as 99 year leases and when the apartment gets to be 10 or 15 years old then not a lot of difference in the timescale in China.

So I am more than happy toiling away on my computer on the balcony, beer by my side,  without having to wonder just how many more months it will be before someone tries to break in and steal whatever they can.  Something people live with daily in London.

So ask me again 'Why did you buy a home in China"

Willy

[Pineau]

I remember in YiYang I had trouble getting my name on the title because I was not Chinese. They were going to register it in Jing's name only. When I said no title no house, no way.  They found a way. They issued two titles. One in my name and another in Jing's, each with ownership. I never had it translated so I just took them at their word.  Willy did you have any trouble getting yourself on the title being a foreigner?