Before you find a house in Shanghai, especially in the urban area, you must know what a second landlord is.
To put it simply, the second landlord rents the house from the landlord first, generally signing for five years or more, then renovating and upgrading, and then puts the house on the market again for rent and provides after-sales service. You may ask why there are two landlords, or why there are so many second landlords in Shanghai, mainly due to market needs. Generally, landlords have several houses and do not have time to take care of the house. Although the original landlord is the landlord, they are not professional landlords. So they are also willing to entrust the house to the second landlord for management.

because the original landlord’s house decoration is very old, especially the kitchen and toilet, are not clean and practical, especially the furniture is mostly Chinese mahogany style, The color is darker. So the market needs the second landlord. They renovate and renovate the old house to add value to the old house. Of course, they also need to make a profit, which is definitely higher than the price they got from the original landlord. And now in Jingan French Concession, most of the houses published on smartshanghai are second-hosts. In fact, we can use asset management companies instead of second-hosts. What’s even better is that the two landlords usually have their own maintenance team, so they can provide better after-sales service, and some of the furniture can also be replaced according to your needs.

So what should you pay attention to if you rent an apartment in shanghai from a second landlord or company?

  1. The second landlord is not the owner of the house, so they do not have the original real estate certificate, but they must have a copy of the real estate certificate, and they should also have a power of attorney from the original landlord(in Chinese named: 委托书).
  2. When you check-in, ask your agent to take a video of the entire house to prevent objections when canceling the rent.（it is better than furniture list ）
  3. Write down all your requirements on the contract before signing the contract, which can save a lot of trouble
  4. After you pay the deposit, ask the landlord to write a deposit receipt for you.