Shanghai compounds for expat families?

I’m assuming you are coming here for work. You really need to get more information from your employer first before asking questions about housing, most importantly, where is the office? Also, how often will you be traveling (how far from an airport do you want to be, and which airport? Shanghai is huge. There’s no point in telling you about homes on the east side if your work is on the west, or vice versa.

Also share some guidance on logistics. I assume with such a healthy housing allowance you also have one car/ driver. But I also assume that your wife won’t be taking kids on the metro and probably not regularly in dangerous taxis. I assume your driver will be driving you to and from work, what about during the day, do you need to travel to clients? Because if you do, how do you expect your wife and kids to get about? Also, what do you expect to do in the evenings and weekends? What hours do you expect your ayi to work? (I know families who have ditched drivers in favour of aiyis since the latter gives them far more flexibility and a more enjoyable lifestyle) You most likely wish to live somewhere with decent amenities on the doorstep, that rules out huge swaths of the city but it also Lu he’s up costs. Why a villa? Is it because you have an idyllic view of the kids playing outside on the lawn with beautiful trees and views to the sea in the distance? Hmmm… By eliminating apartments you’re limiting the locations where you can live quite drastically, especially if you work centrally in NJ Rd/ XTD/ LJZ blah blah blah. Aircon includes some sort of dust filters but for true air purification they’re normally stand alone units sized for the room(s). Everything’s negotiable, I’d expect you could negotiate these into an expensive villa or perhaps negotiate them (and replacement filters) into your contract. If you’re worried about the cost of a few air purifiers then you likely need to rethink your priorities/ package/ salary! You ask what to look for… I reckon there’s only 6 things; quality, quality, quality and location, location, location.

My husband will be setting up an office upon arrival, he will travel at least once a month for work. Is there any upside to either of the airports? If you could choose, which one would you use more often? We will have a driver and car for transport (do they provide car seats or would we need to bring those?) We have been looking at villas purely for the space as we are used to quite large homes with gardens here in South Africa. I assume from your tone that this won’t be a realistic option in Shanghai? We are not so much worried about the cost of the air filters/air purification systems as wanting to find out what the standard is there? Does everyone buy their own once they have moved in?

Well the airport depends on where he’s traveling to. Both Hongqiao and Pudong are international airports, but some countries/cities are better served in one as opposed to another. So if he’s going to be traveling frequently back and forth to South Africa for example, you’ll want to take a look at who flies there from here and where they fly out of. You can get a big villa here if that’s what you want, although as your children are so young I’d suggest opting to spend that money on a spacious apartment downtown and really enjoy life here rather than trying to recreate what you have back home (which will only end in disappointment.) How often do you get the chance in life to try living in a different way? There are plenty of good quality pre-schools downtown, lively playgroups for the kids and social opportunities for parents, and if you stay long enough that your children will start attending primary school you can always move out to the boring ‘burbs later.

Where will he be setting up an office? Do you/ he know? I mean, will it be a rented desk/ serviced office in the CBD or ‘central’ Shanghai (like Jing’an/ W Nanjing Rd/ Xintiandi) or some sort of free trade/ industrial sort more likely out in Waigaqiao or Songjiang etc? Some of those places are hours away from each other. If you really don’t know and won’t have any clue until 6 months after moving here I reckon you’re best starting somewhere furnished/ serviced/ central and as easy as possible, then decide where to move once you get a better idea. (I appreciate that you probably don’t relish moving twice but believe me that’s better than renting some enormous villa in Hongqiao only for him to have to commute to Waigaoqiao every day and PVG each month). As for airports: Hongqiao is broadly domestic and short haul, PVG is broadly international and long haul. But, with only one trip a month, I’d not factor in the airport for your housing location. Especially with a driver. Getting a villa is entirely possible. There’s also some absolutely massive ones. BUT they’re generally not very central. I think that living out on Longdong Ave and driving into Xintiandi would be hell for your husband and desolate for you with very little on the doorstep especially as your driver would be busy for 4 hours a day. But you’d have a big villa. That’s a bit of an extreme example but you do need to look at a map.

Thanks for the advice! We are definitely not looking to recreate what we have at home as that would defeat the object of moving to different continent with a completely different culture to experience. We do however need to factor in what would be most practical with kids. Definitely not excluding apartments (or anything for that matter) at this point. We are wanting to learn how things work in Shanghai in order to adapt as easily as possible.

Great, that’s the right attitude to come with. There’s nothing impractical about living in an apartment with kids. The ones geared toward expats will have things like designated play areas, usually indoors as well as out, since on higher pollution days you’re not going to want them to spend a load of time outdoors as well. (Argument 1 against spending on a villa because it has outdoor space: if you start with 365 days per year and subtract the days that it’s too cold to be out there, and then the ones where it’s too hot to be out there, and then the ones where it’s too rainy to be out there, and finally the ones where it’s too polluted to be out there, and you’re left with like 10 days. 5 of which you’ll be away on holiday anyway.)

As the previous posters suggest, you need to know where your husband is working – Pudong or Puxi narrows the suggestions down as a start. There are plenty of villas within your budget on both sides of the river as well as multiple apartment complexes. I appreciate your eldest is not in school (yet), but you might want to factor this in to any decision you make. The house we initially rented was really nice, and as was the compound. The reality was it was miles from school, and my wife spent half her life either in the car or in coffee shops in Jinqiao while the kids finished after-school activities. There was very little within walking distance of the compound either. Yes, you will want to experience life in China, but sometimes you will just need the simplicity of walking into a western restaurant and ordering something familiar.