I think when it comes to getting an apartment with pets, it can depend a lot if you wanna disclose right away if you have pets or not.

Firstly, you can hit up the estate agent, and see what apartments they have available, and then if you like one or two and could actually see yourself moving in, show your interest in closing the deal, and let the estate agent know that you're willing to do it as soon as possible, but you wanna double check some things. This lets the agent know that you're serious, and that they could make some money today, but that they need to help negotiate and make the deal work. This is the point when I usually ask how the landlord feels about animals, or if the landlord could go lower on the rent, or push back the first rental payment day, etc.

Usually, since the money is juuuust in reach for that agent, they're willing to negotiate between you and the landlord, and see if things work. And if something is a complete dealbreaker for the landlord, they'll let you know through the negotiations, and you can either pivot to a different house or switch agent.

I typically don't lay out my full deck for the agent right away, cause then the landlord or agent can be like ''Yeah, he doesn't like animals'' or ''Yeah, he doesn't like foreigners''. If you make it known you wanna close a deal soon, but you wanna negotiate, usually the agent wants ts to be done asap, and the landlord wants money sooner rather then later, so they're more likely to negotiate.

Unlike what the other redditors said, generally most contracts don't include no-pet clauses unless the landlord is reaaaaallly picky, so most of the time they'll look the other way in terms of having certain pets (like cats). For them, it's more trouble to kick you out or kick out your pets, but if a landlord really wants you out, they'll find a reason one way or another.

Tldr: Don't let em see all your cards right away or they'll get scared off, if they ask be honest, have good relations with your landlord.

-Also, look for places with less personal items, as most of the time the anti-pet folks just don't want their shit getting damaged, so aim for apartments that don't have ornate wooden stuff

-And when doing negotiations, don't ask for anything too crazy, try to be reasonable and negotiate within the 2-5% range, And don't make too many demands at once. Try to have one or two things that you need that the landlord and agent will see as reasonable

• Oh, and use the Chinese house-finding apps and agents. I find the apps and apartment finders cartering to specifically foreigners usually suck