How to Choose the Right Home to Buy

1. Prioritize peace and quiet over a view. Views often come with noise pollution due to a lack of obstructions, and after living somewhere for a while, the view loses its appeal and can become tedious. A quiet, private space simply offers a better quality of life.

Try to visit properties during the day so you can assess the natural light. Also, make sure to test the windows—open them and then close them—to gauge the noise level.

2. When buying a home, opt for a square or rectangular layout rather than one with odd shapes or protrusions. Protrusions create awkward indentations, and poorly placed structural columns can limit your interior design options. A more advanced floor plan keeps bedrooms separated from each other by the living room. Interior walls are often thin and offer poor soundproofing; if two bedrooms share a wall, you might find that parents making noise in the master bedroom can be heard clearly by children sleeping in the next room during the quiet of the night.

3. Actual usable area (calculated as 100 minus the shared-area ratio)

Public housing units typically have the highest usability rate, sometimes exceeding 100%.
• Low-rise courtyard houses (pingfang) have a usability rate of approximately 100%.
• Mid-rise walk-up buildings (no elevator) have a usability rate of around 90%.
• High-rise walk-up buildings also sit at about 90%, while high-rise tower buildings hover around 85%.
• Newly built high-rise tower apartments generally offer around 80% usability.
• Office buildings range from 50% to 70% usability. Generally, the higher the class of office building, the larger the shared area. Commercial-residential buildings follow office building standards for shared areas, which often results in a very low usability rate.
The newer the community, the lower the usability rate tends to be, as there are more shared communal facilities. In some cases, a usability rate of 75%–80% is common.

4. Top and bottom floors are usually cheaper, while mid-to-high floors tend to be more expensive. For a 20-story building, units on the middle floors (around the 10th–15th) are often considered ideal: they’re less likely to be overshadowed, ensuring good natural light and ventilation, and at sufficient height, even mosquitoes struggle to reach them.

The top floor is often cheaper because it’s prone to leaks. From an insulation perspective, top-floor units can be cold in winter and uncomfortably hot in summer, so it’s best to avoid them if possible. Leaks are a notoriously difficult and persistent problem; even after repairs, they tend to reoccur.

5. Avoid buying properties without a property ownership certificate. The name on the certificate must match the name on the purchase contract and the seller’s ID card. Typically, the real estate agent conducts a title search at the local real estate registration authority before or after signing (usually after the agreement is signed). To ensure security, you can split the signing process into two steps: first, sign a deposit agreement and pay the deposit, then pull the title report. Once the title check is clear, proceed to sign the formal purchase contract. Another common approach is to sign the formal contract, pay the deposit, run the title search, and then pay the down payment.