Public welcomes new rental housing policies in SW China's Chengdu

World
Europe

Starting at 470 yuan a month or 74 US dollars, you can now rent a house in the southwestern Chinese city of Chengdu.

A government's scheme to encourage house rentals has seen some 2,200 apartment put up on the market for lease. The houses are all in locations with good transport, and tenants are applauding the change, as the service guarantees their rights.

"The rent itself is not high. You can live here for as long as five years, and they will not force you out ahead of time, nor raise the rent," one tenant told CGTN.

"It's very stable. You no longer have the anxiety of having to move to a new place every few months. You no longer feel as though your home is not your home," said another.

Chengdu is the capital of Sichuan Province, one of China's most populous regions. It is among the country’s first 12 cities to develop the rental market.

The municipal government has so far set up four state-owned companies to specialize in the home rental business. The goal is to put the stockpile of unsold houses owned by local governments to use.

"We will look at the evaluation system of the house rental platform, to see how effective the pilot program is, and then expand the experience on a wider range," Yang Jiayan from the Chengdu housing department said.

By 2021, the rental housing in Chengdu will reach more than 1.5 million units, which will help solve the housing problem of nearly four million people.

The central government has been urging big cities with net population inflows to accelerate the development of the rental market. State-owned companies and property developers are called on to play active roles in increasing the supply.

It remains to be seen how effective and resilient the reform will be before it's rolled out nationwide.