First 30 daysFurniture: buying, renting or shipping
Furniture: buying, renting or shipping
Most Shanghai leases are empty. For a two-to-three-year posting, renting the core pieces usually beats buying them and shipping them home.
- 01
Ask HR whether the employer already has a contracted furniture supplier. A private hire can fight the fapiao and the damage terms.
- 02
Rent the pieces IKEA will not solve: a Western-size mattress, sofa depth, a dryer.
- 03
Buying at IKEA, or a sea shipment, is a different invoice and a different damage clause. Return shipping often costs more than renting again.
- 04
At the viewing: may you drill, may you install a dishwasher, is there a service lift, which villa gate takes a truck.
- 05
Washer and dryer are viewing questions, not a shopping-street problem. A balcony ban in a wet June is a lease argument.
- 06
Serviced apartments already have furniture. Do not rent a second set.
Housing A household without a car in Huacao should rent, not buy. Japanese bathtubs and tatami are a building question, not a furniture-rental question. Korean extraction is a building rule.
Official sources
First 30 days
- Driving licence conversion for foreign holdersAn International Driving Permit is not enough on its own. Convert if you will live here. Apply for a temporary permit if you need to drive in the first weeks.
- Hiring an ayiTwo working adults, a villa, a school-bus pickup — without an ayi the corridor is the wrong one. A live-in ayi takes a bedroom. Ask at the viewing.
- How to read a school calendarA housing year follows the school year, not the Chinese public-holiday table. Open the school’s own Calendar page.
Each guide gives the official process with source links and effective dates, plus the pitfalls we have recorded from real cases. Anything requiring a licence is referred to registered providers only.
Live near what you love.
Tell us the school, the dates, and the corridor you are looking at.