City outlines blueprint to boost rental home sector

The Shanghai government yesterday announced plans to stabilize the property market, including speeding up the development of rental apartments and increasing the supply of affordable housing units.

The city aims to create a high-quality rental housing market and plans to build and convert 100,000 rental housing units throughout the year.

Since 2017, Shanghai has continuously expanded rental housing. Last year, the city sold 118 hectares for rental purposes, with a planned construction over 2.5 million square meters.

Shanghai also plans to accelerate the construction of affordable housing and improve support services for large residential units.

As many as 60,000 new affordable housing units are expected to be supplied in 2019, compared with the target of 55,000 units in 2018.

Last year, Shanghai saw a total of 80,000 new affordable housing units built — exceeding the target — and by the end of 2018, the city had a total 126,000 units of public rental apartments.

On top of that, based on shared property ownership, eligible non-registered households with financial difficulties are now included in the housing welfare system.

As of the end of 2018, the number of families benefiting from low-rent housing and affordable housing with joint property ownership reached 127,000 and 120,000 respectively, the government said.

Shanghai said it will follow the principle that "houses are built for living and not for speculation" and it will focus on the regulation of the real estate market to maintain the continuity and stability of its control policies.

Achieving strict control of high house and land prices is not a short term strategy, nor will it reduce the reliance of economic growth and fiscal revenue on the real estate industry, officials said.

Meanwhile, the city will strengthen the supervision of the agency rental industry and further strengthen the monitoring of the rental housing market.

To better guide market expectations, it seeks to improve the functions of the public service platform for rental apartments and establish a monitoring index system and an information release mechanism for home rent.