Company executives with an eye on setting up headquarters or satellite offices in mainland cities accept they will come across the need for guanxi at some stage.
Some have less palatable names to describe this use of connections and well-placed individuals to smooth deals and secure that new office in a strategic location. Yet as the mainland becomes more vital to multinational ambitions, companies and property agents are realising they need more than good old guanxi to secure the best office lease terms.
Welcome to the world of transaction management - a new field of expertise on the rise in the property agency business. And it is becoming more crucial when international companies want to reduce and manage risk while navigating the mainland's complex - and in some cases arbitrary - property laws.
'Companies need another layer on top to control problems that may arise as well as providing a good landlord check on their portfolio,' said Ben Tindale, head of transaction management in China for Jones Lang LaSalle.
A transaction manager will be an expert in mainland and international real estate with a strong background in accountancy and compliance, Mr Tindale told a forum at the Office Space Asia Conference in Hong Kong recently.
Agents and executives at the helm of office leasing deals have their own share of horror stories to relate about deals gone wrong. These range from buildings crumbling because anti-freeze was used in the cement, to senior executives pulling their hair out as they are left waiting way beyond the completion date to move into a supposedly swish, gleaming high-rise. As for recourse to the courts and arbitration, well that's another grey area when it comes to mainland deals and a situation best avoided by ... you guessed it, using a transaction management (TM) team.