One of my biggest complaints about raising kids in Shanghai is its lack of green spaces. With our lease up in a few months, Luca and I are exploring the idea of forsaking downtown apartment living for a suburban house with a garden.

“Garden houses are attractive to many expatriate families with children,” remarks Jordon Tao, an agent with Joanna Real Estate Shanghai. “These types of homes allow children to enjoy nature, play outdoors, grow plants, keep pets and host barbecues.”

The primary downside of a garden house is location. “Most garden houses are situated on the outskirts of town, far away from the city center’s many restaurants, bars, shops and other amenities,” explains Tao. Plus, “due to traffic, commutes downtown can be long.”

On the bright side, travel times will improve in the next few years, predicts Tao, due to the completion of several new highways and tunnels.

According to Tao, popular suburban areas with garden houses include Jinqiao, Kangqiao and Long Dong avenue area on the Pudong side and Qingpu, Hongqiao and Minhang on the Puxi side.

Regarding garden sizes, the general rule is that the further a house is from the city center, the bigger the garden will be. “Most houses beside or outside the Outer Ring Highway offer gardens between 300 to 1,000 sq. meters in size,” advises Tao.

Those seeking even more green space might be attracted to complexes offering fenceless, common gardens, which allow all surrounding neighbors to share a large yard. What you lose in privacy, you gain in social interaction and garden size.

In the downtown area, gardens are generally limited to renovated old homes, primarily located in the former French Concession area. “Old houses offer expatriates the conveniences and amenities of interesting city life as well as gardens,” explains Michael Ding, an agent with Red Dragon Property and an old house specialist.

Potential snags of renting an old house include higher price per square meter, smaller gardens, maintenance issues, as well as lack of clubhouse, security, on-site management and other facilities.

Depending on the location and style you prefer, a garden house between 300 to 350 sq. meters will cost RMB18,000 to RMB85,000 per month.

While gifting our kids with a little patch of green in Shanghai’s concrete jungle certainly appeals, we are not sure whether we are ready to make the move to the ’burbs quite yet. I will keep you posted.

Are you a family living in the Shanghai suburbs? How did you make the decision to get out of the hustle and bustle of the big city?

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