Hi all,

It's been 5 years since I last was in

Kunming. I'll be coming back at the end of the year and was wondering how much I should expect to pay for rent now? Back in 2015 I rented a fully furnished one bedroom apartment near

新迎路 in an older building for 1500 a month.

I always liked the older apartments better than the new builds as long as they were in decent knick. How much have the prices jumped since then? Any recommendations or advice for my up-coming return to would be appreciated :)

Welcome back to Kunming, a bit cold right now. But that's a relative statement depending where you're coming from.

I believe I saw a Walmart at the corner of Xinying Rd. and Bailong Road while sitting in the back of Bus 69 watching the world go by. ;)

You'd be surprised how much that area have changed since 5 years ago.

Around 200 meters further west of Bailong Lu toward Baiyun Lu, two massive shopping centers opposite one another just opened. A future Line 5 Metro station under construction is situated there.

FYI, Line 5 will take you to Green Lake and Shuncheng Plaza for Line 3 (pink) interchange , but not before hitting your familiar Line 2 (blue) that takes you North and South-bound. Line 5 still in the works.

In regards to rent, I'm not sure about older buildings in the area. Since a lot of new empty apartments are sprawling over there, 1700 imo is still totally doable. 1500 with some luck.

The new Aegean Mall is one of the shopping malls there. Their smaller lofts were selling for only 17K/sqm a month and a half ago. Yeah, still pretty cheap since your departure, considering a metro station below.

Many real estate speculators who bought it are renting them out cheap. Perhaps check out the rent prices there at Aegean Mall for sheer convenience.

Inflation has been running at a rough average of 2% nationally since 2015, so you can expect prices generally to be around 10% higher.

My unscientific impression is that rental rates have gone up by more than that, somewhere in the 10% to 20% range. For the equivalent of your 1500 RMB rental from 2015, this translates to a range of 1650 to 1800 RMB today. Incidentally, that overlaps with satii's estimate above ("1700 imo is still totally doable. 1500 with some luck").

Good points made by herenow.

While inflation naturally crept their nasty heads into 物价 since '15, supply of residential buildings has also gone up at a greater rate than actual demand of occupancy.

This trend increases price competition among landlords to rent out lower, yet slightly above averages of five years ago.

Although city-center rents have increased to ~2500 for 1B apartments，along with rates of apartment-turned-hotels (酒店式公寓) thanks to influx of tourists, the blossoming of new compounds outward around second ring and beyond have added downward pressure to rent prices.

1500 is still possible in these 2nd ring residential areas near MRT for convenient commute. I say this because a friend was recently lucky enough to rent out her fully furnished 一室一厅 apt at 1750 within a few days of listing. That price was relatively higher than those of her competitor renters. Many of whom listed theirs for much lower at the 1500-1600 market price range.

Again, I can't speak for old compounds in OP's particular area of interest.

Another factor in housing structure in cities like Kunming is the central government's "2019 Urbanization Plan".

Specifically it requires cities (referring to the urban area I believe) with populations smaller than five million to remove hukou requirements on groups such as university and vocational college graduates.

In past, owning a property was such requirement, but when that gets scrapped, houses do not sell for hukou purposes anymore.

While they may continue to sell for social issues like marriages, many families may own property outside the provincial capitals already to fulfill those social obligations, and owning property in the city will not add much to that since their children will be eligible to urban hukou regardless.

In this situation those who do the long term math between buying property in city and renting, may more often choose the latter now. Perhaps use savings to upgrade family residences outside cities instead.

Because this is specifically the 2019 urbanization plan, it would not have affected observable rent prices quite yet.

You mentioned the '19 urbanization plan would shelve hukou requirements for "groups such as university and vocational college graduates."

Does this politburo plan grant admissions to inner-city primary schools for children of non-hukou lessees?

Primary and secondary school levels would be heavier proponents reshaping the housing structure in Kunming, if the case.

*Correction on my previous post. My friend (the lessor) rented out her two bedroom apartment (not 1B) with sizable living room for 1750. Competing lessors also leased similar 两室一厅 for 200 lower. So expect 1B smaller apartments to be less. Hence, 1500 is achievable for OP upon Dec. return. Fingers crossed.

The rental price will vary depending on many factors and some people might have found different deals, from experience I would say:

Fully furnished, one bedroom apartment, relatively nice located from 1500/1700 (very lucky/ market price) to whatever you are willing to pay, but as I said, depending on many factors.

You can actually find some tiny one bedroom apartments from 1000RMB if you know where to look, you can also rent out whole 3 bedrooms apartments in old communities for 1800 RMB, will also have to do with your ability to communicate in Chinese, and be at the right place at the right time as these opportunities are fewer.

good luck.

Agree with Chris.

Prices may also depend on landlord's financial situation. Many amateur speculators borrow from major banks, shady financial services online, or 高利贷 to purchase houses. Quite a few on tight incomes struggle to pay off heavy morgage/loan interests. These landlords would let at a lower than market price for speedy 出手 to kick off cash cow. Revenue stream on a quarterly (季) basis, or semiannually. Correct me if I'm wrong, the norm for rent payments in Kunming?

While some others may prefer to rent out high because they're attached to the wallpaper or chandelier.

*Another typo. I meant 200 meters further East of Bailong Lu toward Baiyun Lu from 新迎路, not West.

It is also not unusual for people to want 12 months rent in advance. It is up to you to try to negotiate this down. More people are flexible now than 10 years ago.

@satii: "Does this politburo plan grant admissions to inner-city primary schools for children of non-hukou lessees?"

(Going off-topic, but is related to it so I'll let it fly).

The type of hukou will no longer be restrictive element (for the mentioned groups anyway) in things like school and medical admissions.

I am uncertain whether the new policy means that lack of urban hukou will not matter, or will (for example) rural graduates from the city universities be eligible to change to their own urban hukou on application.

Property ownership will continue to be a factor for education access, but more in the specific areas within city. For many rural residents, having access to urban services even beyond ring roads means more than whether they have property in vicinity of a specific subway stop or a good primary school.

If I was a rural parent somewhere in Yunnan mountains with my offspring graduating from a Kunming university, I would advice them to rent a place in Kunming while having a junior employment position here, all the while looking for better employment opportunities in higher tier cities.

Prior to this reform, I would have been under pressure to buy a property (almost any property) for my son or daughter in Kunming right away, because that would have been required for the family to move up the social ladder, and property in (and knowledge of) a first tier city would have most likely been out of my budget anyway even if my child landed a job there early on.

For the graduates that are the primary target for these reforms, the financing to buy property will come from their parents, and as far as the education of possible future grandchildren is concerned, the reforms buy both the graduates and their parents time to see how the city and its related resources develop - or whether they will even stay in Kunming.

This I believe cools the property market in this specific segment of fresh graduates with sufficient funding available from parents.