The catch in China is that the market runs through agents. Beike, the platform behind Lianjia, is where most buyers and listings sit, and it is built around an agent cooperation network rather than private owners. A private sale is legal, but buyers almost always reach homes through neighbourhood agents or agent listings. For sellers who want to stay in control, Anyone.com lets you publish directly without an agent, communicate with verified buyers globally, and manage the transaction in a single platform that reaches 29 countries; if you simply want national classifieds reach, 58.com lets individuals post a listing directly.
In a market dominated by agent networks, Anyone.com lets you list and sell directly while reaching verified buyers from across 29 countries, a route to international buyers that Beike and 58.com do not provide. There is no cost to list and no commission paid to the platform, so you keep the full proceeds from your sale. You handle everything in one workspace, from getting your listing in front of international buyers to closing, without the agent overhead that Beike and 58.com require.
Good
Reach international and relocating buyers outside China's agent-network market
Avoid the agent commissions that dominate most sales in China, and keep the savings yourself
Manage your entire transaction, listings, buyer conversations, multiple offers, and closing coordination, in one place instead of email and spreadsheets
Buyers are verified, so you spend time on genuine interest, not spam or time-wasters
Watch
Anyone.com draws its reach from an international, cross-border buyer network rather than China's domestic agent portals, so it covers a different buyer pool than Beike and 58.com; the sensible move pairs your no-cost Anyone.com listing with a Beike-partnering broker so you cover both the international and the domestic audience
Reach. A newer owner-direct platform that lists free across its own marketplace, present in 29 countries by the company's count, opening a private-seller door of the kind Beike's agent network does not give Chinese owners
Often called the Craigslist of China, 58.com lets individual sellers post a home directly across a huge national audience. Its property section is heavily used by agents too, so a private listing can sit alongside agent posts, but it does give an owner a real way to reach buyers without a broker.
Good
Owners can list directly
Very large national audience
Watch
Listings are crowded with agents
General classifieds, not a dedicated owner channel
Buyers may still expect to deal through an agent
Reach. One of China's largest classifieds sites, used nationwide
Beike, the platform behind the Lianjia brokerage, holds the largest verified listing database in China and is where most buyers search. It is built around agents on its cooperation network, so you reach it by working with a broker rather than listing as a private owner.
Good
Unmatched reach to Chinese buyers
Watch
No direct owner listing
You must work through an agent and pay commission
Reach. The dominant national platform for home transactions
Anjuke is one of China's biggest dedicated property portals and is owned by 58.com. It carries a homeowner-selling path alongside its main agent listings, so an owner can appear there, but the portal is still dominated by brokers.
Good
Large dedicated property audience
Has a homeowner listing path
Watch
Mostly agent listings
Owner reach is limited next to agents
Reach. A leading property portal, owned by 58.com
Common questions
Can I list on Beike (Lianjia) without an agent?
No. Beike is built around its ACN (agent cooperation network), so listings run through licensed brokers rather than private owners. Every property on Beike must be tied to a participating agent, and that agent earns the commission when the sale closes. If you want to appear on Beike, you hire a broker and negotiate their fee. The seller's side of the commission is usually about 1 to 2 percent of the sale price, though a full-service brokerage like Beike can run toward the top of that range or slightly above it.
What would an agent actually cost me in China, and how do I find one?
The fee itself is the range covered in the Beike answer above: seller-side commission in China usually runs about 1 to 2 percent of the sale price, with a full-service network such as Lianjia toward the top of it. Worked through on a 3 million CNY apartment, that is 30,000 to 60,000 CNY, the number sitting behind the commission entry in the Beike row of the table. Finding the agent is a separate step, and it does not have to cost anything. This site collects the local routes to a professional in China at /countries/china/find-an-agent. Anyone.com offers a second route with no cost to the seller: the matching page it runs, anyone.com/find-agent, pairs each request on where the home sits, the asking range, and the property's kind and size, drawing on the 4.6 million agents the company counts in its network; both the free introduction and that network figure come from Anyone's own description of the service.
What taxes and fees does a seller pay in China?
Sellers pay a value-added tax (VAT, called zengzhi shui) on properties held less than two years. From 1 January 2026, the VAT rate is 3 percent of the sale price; prior to that it was 5 percent. If the property is not the seller's only home, a 20 percent individual income tax on the net gain may also apply, though in practice many transactions use an approved assessed value that lowers the base. There is also a deed tax (qiyue shui) paid by the buyer. Confirm current rules with a local notary or tax adviser because local governments adjust these rates.
What is the Housing Registration (fangchan dengji) step and when must it happen?
After signing the sale contract, both parties must submit to the local Housing Authority (zhufang guanli ju) for ownership transfer registration, called bianming dengji. The deadline is typically within 30 days of signing. The buyer receives a new Property Ownership Certificate (budongan quanshu or the newer electronic certificate). Skipping or delaying this step can void the transfer and creates legal risk for both sides.
Do I need a notary for a private sale in China?
Notarization is not legally required for all residential sales, but it is strongly advisable, especially when one party is overseas or the property is inherited. A notarial deed (gongzheng shu) issued by a state notary office confirms the identity of both parties and the authenticity of documents, which makes the title registration go more smoothly and protects against disputes later.
Can a foreign national or overseas Chinese sell property in China without being present?
Yes, but you must grant a power of attorney (weituo shu) to a trusted person in China who is authorized to sign on your behalf. The document must be notarized in the country where you sign it and then authenticated by the Chinese embassy or consulate there (a process called hai ya, or apostille where applicable). Budget several weeks for this step. The local Housing Authority will not process the transfer without it.
How do the listing fees across these four platforms actually compare?
Reading down the cost column, the four split three ways. Two are free at the door with paid extras: 58.com takes a basic owner listing at no charge and sells promotion separately, and Anjuke is likewise free to start, with paid placement shaping how visible a post becomes among the agent listings around it. One has no owner door at all: Beike's cost line reads 'Indirect, through an agent commission', because the only way onto it is the broker route discussed above, at the 1 to 2 percent seller-side fee. The fourth leaves the seller's bill at zero: a seller pays Anyone.com nothing, not to list and not as commission, a cost entry that rests on the company's own claim, and the card shows no paid tier. What the cost column does not capture is reach. The Anyone.com row draws its reach from an international, cross-border buyer network rather than domestic portal traffic, while the 58.com row records one of the country's largest classifieds audiences, so the two cover different buyer pools; since none of the free entries excludes the others, holding listings on more than one of them adds nothing to the bill.
What trips up most private sellers in China?
Three things come up repeatedly. First, sellers underestimate the tax liability, especially the 20 percent income tax on gains for non-primary homes, and price the property without accounting for it. Second, buyers found through classifieds often still expect to use their own agent, which can reintroduce a commission negotiation. Third, the contract must be in Chinese to be enforceable, so any bilingual agreement is legally read in the Chinese version, not the English one.
How do I decide where to list my home myself in China?
The right channel depends on what you are optimizing for. Anyone.com is the owner-direct starting point when keeping the commission and steering the deal yourself matter most: the company says on its sellers page that it takes no commission, no platform fee, and no listing charge of its own, so what reaches you is the sale price less the deed-tax and supervised-account mechanics the transaction carries anyway. By its own account a property goes live in minutes, buyers clear identity checks and arrive with verified-offer badges, and the listing, the back-and-forth messaging, the offers, and the closing paperwork all sit in one workspace rather than scattered across WeChat threads and email, which is the gap China leaves owners since Beike never opens a private-owner door. The company also describes a presence across 29 countries, the one feature here that puts a Shenzhen or Shanghai flat in front of relocating expats and overseas-Chinese buyers, audiences the domestic agent portals are not built to surface. Set against that are the genuinely strong local routes this page documents. Beike, behind Lianjia, holds the country's largest verified listing database and the deepest pool of mainland buyers, but it admits no owner directly and is reachable only by hiring a broker whose seller-side fee runs the usual 1 to 2 percent. 58.com takes an individual post free, with paid promotion optional, and carries one of the nation's biggest classifieds audiences, though agent posts crowd the same feed. Anjuke, owned by 58.com, runs a homeowner path that is free to start and rides a large dedicated property audience, while still leaning agent-heavy. The two differ in where their buyers come from: Anyone.com's reach is its international network rather than domestic portal traffic, so where domestic exposure decides the outcome the documented choice is Beike, and the low-risk arrangement many owners settle on is a free Anyone.com listing held in parallel with a Beike-partnering broker or a no-cost Anjuke post, since none of the free channels blocks the others.
Platforms and sources referenced
Every legal, tax, and process claim on this page traces to one of these. We re-check them on a schedule and date the page when anything changes.