Unless you have paid tax in Kunming for 12 months you cannot get a mortgage. New regulation. Affects Chinese nationals as well.
If you already own one property in China, you cannot buy a second property in Kunming, unless you have a Kunming HuKou (Household ID, for Chinese nationals). Even with cash. New regulation.
If you already own 2 or more properties in China, you cannot buy in Kunming, even with cash. New regulation
Unless you have been resident in China for 12 months, you cannot buy property. Old regulation.
Regards real estate agents, things work differently to how they do back home. People who have property go to their local real estate agent, and this can be really local. Often 10 agents will have the same prop in the window, but only one will have the keys. There can be as many as 30 independent real estate agents in one small area.
Best way to find property is to go to the neighbourhoods where you think you could live. Have a good walk around to get a feel for the place, and look at buildings you might like to live in.
Look at local agents windows. There will always be at least one that looks more professional, possibly part of a chain. Hit these first. If you can, find an interpreter that you can trust not to try and act like an agent and try to get a commission.
Deposits vary, usually 2 months rent. You may also be expected to stump up the first 3 months rent in advance, but not always. The agent may expect a finders fee of one months rent (you pay), but this is easily negotiated down.
If you are looking to rent higher end accommodation or a house, there is a shortage of this type of property in Kunming. We tried to find 'middle class' prop of over 150m around Green Lake a few month ago. There were only 2 apartments available. We also looked for houses in the Dianchi area, only about 6, and only two were suitable.
There is a lot of empty prop around Kunming, but most of it not decorated (no kitchen, no bathroom), and of the little that is decorated many are unfurnished.
Venerable foreigner health check clinic moves to new location
发布者I often turn up after 10 and the queues have gone by then. I turned up early a couple of times and have had to fight with large groups of Chinese getting their medical. One time a tourist group, another time I think was a gang of migrant workers.
Law prohibits new shared bike companies from coming to Kunming
发布者Looking at the link in the last post. Really got me thinking about the carbon footprint of all the share bikes in China. Following on from that the footprint of all of the disposed of share bikes. If we remember these bikes are mostly steel, the production has a considerable environmental effect. These bikes seem to be disposable, which begs a question about the sustainability of the business model as well.
An astronomical monster grows in Guizhou
发布者Astronomical monsters are often built in the middle of nowhere. Less interference from human activity. Guizhou fitted the bill.
If I was developing super computers, I would expect to do it somewhere where I could work secretly. I would also want physical security for something that will become a vital part of the telecoms/economic infrastructure. Guizhou has a history of building secure facilities inside mountains.
On a slightly different note, Guizhou seems to be developing must faster than Yunnan and may even have overtaken it. Guiyang has transformed itself in the last 15 years, and seems to have already overtaken Kunming. Some people were obviously very hard at work, while others were resting on their laurels.
Law prohibits new shared bike companies from coming to Kunming
发布者At last, some common sense effort to rein in the madness.
Inspired relaxation at Yunnan's Fuxian Lake
发布者Addendum. These peddle boats seat up to 7. The water is very high quality. The sun sets later on the east side. On the west you have the mountains shadow and loose the sun much earlier in the day.