I cosigned my wife's mortgage with CCB. Her name is on the property deed, as it's seriously complicated to transfer title deeds for foreigners. There's some paperwork showing the paper trail of income and bank account cashflow but nothing spectacularly difficult or complicated to overcome. My name on the mortgage, but wife's name ONLY is on the property deed, so technically I legally own NO overseas property for home country taxation purposes.

There'll be a plethora of taxes and fees associated with either property transfer or a purchase. Your real estate agent should be able to provide a list. If they can't - you're using the wrong agent. The gov real estate office also has a list of fees and taxes - but they probably won't give you the time of day for casual requests for information.

If you buy a new property - expect to spend upwards of CNY 200-300k for renovation from bare concrete walls to a move-in livable space. We used a reasonably reputable interior design and decoration firm to manage the entire process. Infinitely less stressful. You should do your own research so you know prices of labor and materials, so you'll understand ballpark numbers BEFORE you go shopping. Also beware the bait & switch - which is why we used a reasonably reputable interior designer. We also aired out our apartment for a couple of months, stuffed the closets with large shopping bags full of tea to instill the tea aroma as opposed to the smells of glue and paint. Tea also functions as a desiccant (sucks humidity out of the air), so there's that. I would NOT advise using the tea downstream for drinking. Seems it's a well known rural practice amongst tea farmers (who probably resell the tea once its served its purpose).

On that note - generally, property or other major assets acquired AFTER marriage are considered community property in China - regardless of how one tries to hide or manipulate the assets.

Good luck and best wishes.

"assets acquired AFTER marriage are considered community property in China - regardless of how one tries to hide or manipulate the assets"

Unfortunately that doesn't work both ways.

If the name of the foreign spouse is not on the property deeds, it having been "seriously complicated" to do at the time may not be a valid excuse to consider the foreign spouse having a claim on the property after the marriage (or even during marriage in some cases).

It may be complicated indeed, but I would argue worth the effort in long run. In particular for younger couples for which there may be a "after marriage".

That said, thought came up for older generation, what would happen if the Chinese spouse passes away first and the foreign spouse has no name on the property? Sub scenarios with shared children or only the Chinese spouse having children?