"One suite", "one room" and "one bed", explore all over the country to meet the needs of new citizens

Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- "One suite", "one room" and "one bed" are being explored to meet the housing needs of new citizens

Xinhua News Agency reporters Zheng Juntian and Wang Youling

Courier boys, domestic service workers, sanitation workers...... How can front-line builders and managers who provide basic services for urban development solve their housing difficulties, and how can the needs of new citizens and young people be better met for safe and livable housing?

In recent years, Shanghai, Guangdong, Shandong, Jiangxi and other places have anchored the housing needs of young people of new citizens, broadened the ways of raising affordable rental housing, explored and improved the multi-level rental housing supply system, and demonstrated the care and temperature of the city.

The "one suite", "one room" and "one bed" rental housing model is popular

30-year-old Zhang Songwei moved into a four-person room in the affordable rental community - China Resources Youchaomaqiao AI Apartment Community in October this year. As a security guard who came to Shanghai from other places to work, he developed a strong sense of belonging to Shanghai.

"The room is equipped with washing machines, range hoods and other household appliances and necessary furniture, and there are public areas such as reading areas, fitness areas, and audio-visual areas, as well as parks, hospitals, schools and other supporting facilities around the community. Zhang Songwei said.

The reporter learned from the interview that for the builders of the city from other places, the temporary dormitory on the construction site, the old housing, and the urban village are more common choices. Many people live in collective dormitories, and the large bunks of several people cannot sleep well at night, and the living conditions are unsatisfactory.

"This group is more sensitive to rent, and also attaches great importance to the commuting time between the place of residence and the place of work, and the rental housing should go further and make a difference in solving the housing difficulties of this group. Yu Xiaofen, vice president of Zhejiang University of Technology, said that first-tier city builders and managers need cities to provide more accurate housing services to ensure that they have a place to live.

Since 2020, Shanghai has begun to explore the "one bed" supply model. "Make good use of the rental housing, take out part of the housing in the appropriate area for dismantling and provide shared housing, strengthen the collection of dormitory-type housing, increase the rental supply of 'one room' and 'one bed', and accurately solve the rental needs of front-line public service personnel. Wang Zhen, director of the Shanghai Municipal Housing Administration, said.

In Ganzhou, Jiangxi Province, Zhang Hang, a teacher at Longhui Middle School in Nankang District, was full of emotion: "I didn't expect that in just one summer, the 'appearance' of our teacher's apartment was refreshed, and the clean, refreshing and bright rooms made our living quality improved." ”

The relevant person in charge of the Ganzhou Municipal Bureau of Housing and Urban-Rural Development said that Ganzhou has a vast area, with more than 290 towns (streets) in the city, and there are many public service groups such as rural teachers, medical staff and grassroots cadres, and the housing is tight and the conditions are poor. In addition, the number of employees in Ganzhou Industrial Park has grown rapidly, the housing facilities in the industrial park are insufficient, and problems such as poor living conditions and job-housing imbalance are widespread.

In order to solve the housing problem of new citizens and young people, since 2022, Ganzhou City has raised 43,000 sets of rental housing for rural teachers, medical staff and other grassroots public service groups. During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, the city is expected to raise more than 100,000 sets of rental housing in industrial parks, which can meet the housing needs of more than 200,000 industrial workers.

There is pressure on continuous operation and the source of land needs to be broadened

Affordable rental housing has effectively met the housing needs of new citizens, but the reporter's investigation found that problems such as land shortage, low return on investment, and financing difficulties are still plaguing this livelihood industry:

-- Land is in short supply. In the investigation, the reporter found that in Beijing, Shanghai and other megacities, the main difficulty in the development of affordable rental housing is the shortage of land.

"Land resources are scarce in big cities, and increasing rental housing cannot be built entirely by new ones. Most of them need to rely on the renovation and transformation of non-residential buildings, such as idle industrial plants, stock commercial and office assets, etc. Chen Jie, a professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, said, "In our survey, we found that the occupancy rate of non-residential conversion rental housing is as high as about 90%, which largely solves the problem of job-housing balance and supply and demand adaptation." ”

- Low return on investment. "In the face of a large number of preparatory tasks, land is a big problem, and funding is another big problem. For the affordable rental housing business to be sustainable, it needs to be operated sustainably. The person in charge of the leasing business of a state-owned enterprise said.

As a low-profit industry, affordable rental housing has a long return on investment cycle and is greatly affected by the macroeconomic cycle, and many enterprises are reluctant to participate in it, such as the return on investment cycle of non-residential housing renovation is more than 6 years, and the net profit margin is only 3%-5% in the case of no business problems.

The person in charge of Beike's rental and leasing business told reporters that according to Beike's practice in Shanghai, the decoration cost of each room is about 100,000 yuan, plus other costs, and the rent is only a few thousand yuan per month.

-- High financing costs and narrow financing channels

The problems of difficult loans, expensive loans, and difficult exit for rental housing operators have always existed. Operating enterprises engaged in stock transformation generally do not hold physical assets, but only hold long-term lease contracts, and it is difficult for enterprises to borrow sufficient funds in the form of credit loans from banks and other financial institutions without physical collateral.

Many grassroots cadres interviewed believe that if there is no income, affordable rental housing will not be able to enter a virtuous circle. Chen Jie and other industry insiders suggested that according to the experience of Shanghai's exploration, all localities should study and introduce policies to expand the scope of affordable rental housing, refine and implement preferential policies such as finance and taxation as soon as possible.

Rent well, rent steadily, and let new citizens live with peace of mind

In response to diversified rental demand, various localities are taking multiple measures to accelerate the construction of a multi-level rental housing supply system.

The "one bed" product in affordable rental housing is an important part of Shanghai's housing security system. During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, Shanghai will provide 200,000 beds and 200,000 rental housing units, focusing on solving the problem of "good rent" for those who are indispensable to the city and engaged in basic public services, such as sanitation workers, courier workers, domestic service workers, and front-line industrial workers.

In Hefei City, Anhui Province, more than 300,000 new college graduates will be recruited for the first time in 2022, and it is expected to reach 350,000 this year. Strengthen land supply, set a separate land supply plan for affordable rental housing, and focus on increasing small-scale low-rent and high-quality affordable rental housing in areas with high housing prices, population inflow, and industrial concentration...... Hefei has taken multiple measures to raise housing resources, alleviate the structural shortage of housing supply, and try its best to reduce rental costs.

Guangdong has identified 10 cities, namely Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Shantou, Foshan, Huizhou, Dongguan, Zhongshan, Jiangmen and Zhanjiang, as the key cities for the development of affordable rental housing in the province.

The construction model of the self-owned stock land of enterprises and institutions is used to raise the model by public acquisition, and the transformation model of the stock resettlement housing is used...... Since 2021, Zhejiang Province has continued to strengthen the collection of housing resources, and has built and raised a total of 827,000 rental housing units, which has completed 68.9% of the goals and tasks of the "14th Five-Year Plan".

In recent years, the mainland has continued to improve the housing system with multi-subject supply, multi-channel security, and simultaneous rental and purchase. According to the data, about 2 million units (rooms) of affordable rental housing have been raised and built nationwide this year. In the past two years, more than 600 billion yuan has been invested in affordable rental housing, which can solve the housing difficulties of nearly 15 million new citizens and young people. (ENDS)