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Rents in Beijing vary depending on many factors, in particular locations, property types and Decoration.

Location
The most important location factor is international schools. Properties around international schools (not necessary close to downtown) are currently commanding the highest rent, because most of these property owners understand that parents would normally like to close to international school to shorten the commute to school for their children.

Secondly, properties around the international community such as Sanlitun, Chaoyang Park, and the Lufthansa Area, also command a much higher rent compared to others. The common characteristics of these places are the easy access to expatriate shopping facilities, bistros, cafes, western restaurants other amenities.

Property Type
High quality serviced properties always command a much higher rent compared to similar type of properties owned by individual landlord (even though they are in the same compound), mainly because of the provision of housekeeping services as well as immediate repair and maintenance services. Unless you are in Beijing for a short-term consultancy projects, most expatriates prefer to live in the non-serviced properties so that they don't feel like living in a “hotel” and more importantly, they prefer to decorate their own homes.

Historic courtyard is also commanding a premier rent in Beijing. Since the deregulation of housing market in Beijing, there is a trend of many foreigners and foreign investment companies investing in the historic residential properties – restoring the properties but keeping the original structure to ensure the intrinsic value of the properties. Due to limited supply of these historic residential properties, as well as the entry costs of owning an old residential property (most of the old properties are also known as landed properties, and cost much higher to own and to renovate the old properties), most of the old properties are asking for a much higher price compared to new residential properties. Pricing of these historic properties is very unique, and totally depends on the size, design and layout of these old residential properties, as well as the owner’s sentimental value.

For apartments and villas, the pricing depends on the location, the size, the floors (higher floor always fetch a higher price because of the fresher air and better view) and the associated facilities in the compound.

Decoration
Prior to 2003, most of the new properties came un-decorated(only cement floor without any doors) and most of the property owners needed to decorate the entire properties themselves. Some property owners spent more than half a million US dollars in purchasing properties but decorated the properties with gaudy opulent furnishings (e.g. gold furnishing with big bulky furniture) and some property owners fitted out their expensive residential properties with all second hand furniture. Hence, it is important to use an experienced property agent who is familiar with the type of furnishings you are most comfortable with.

Today, most of the properties come with standardized developers’ renovations with designer concepts; some of properties were sold with simple and upscale furniture as well. This trend has certainly helped with the supply of better renovated and furnished properties for the expatriate market.