老破小

lǎopòxiǎo
noun

Measure Word

Meanings

  1. 1 old, rundown, small apartment (typically in a prime urban location)

Examples

Wèile háizi shàngxué, zhǐ néng mǎi zhè zhǒng xuéqū lǎopòxiǎo.
For the kid's school, we could only afford this old rundown little flat in the catchment area.
Běijīng èr huán lǐ de lǎopòxiǎo, yì píngmǐ dōu xiǎo shí wàn.
Old rundown walk-ups inside Beijing's second ring go for nearly 100,000 yuan a square meter.

Tips

culture
Classic urban-millennial housing trope: (old, 70s-90s stock) + (run-down, no elevator) + (tiny, often <50㎡). Bought for the 户口/学区 rather than the living experience. Contrast with (new, big, wide) suburban flats.

Stroke Order

lǎo
xiǎo