Whose Lease Is It Anyway? New Approach to Rental Housing on the Way in China

Hate paying rent? Semi-afraid of your irritable landlord? Have no idea why you get charged this much anyway? The government is here to help! Or…at least wants to see what it can do about rental housing policies. 

Like many regions of the country, Beijing's rental prices are still on the cheap end thanks to the after-effects of the coronavirus outbreak, and rather than wait for the recovery to bring prices back up with a vengeance, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development is moving to get ahead of the game to ensure stable rent prices in the future. On Sep 7, the ministry released the Rental Housing Regulations (Draft for Comment) for public consultation. From now until Oct 8, you too can weigh in on the Ministry’s vision for regulating and improving China’s rental housing market.

The policy draft clearly acknowledges current dysfunction in China’s rental system, with issues including predatory contractual practices, lack of formal agreements between renter and landlord, fraudulent rental loan applications, and lack of clarity regarding renter rights or regulators’ responsibilities. This is the first major, detail-oriented directive on rental housing in China, signaling that the government is interested in addressing some of these shortcomings. Their general approach: standardizing rental practices and creating greater predictability for administrators, landlords, and renters.

What does this mean for you? If implemented as drafted, this could make it easier for locals and transplants alike to navigate the rental market with more transparency. You should know that the policy:

• Tasks local governments with stabilizing the rental market: The document states that local governments should incorporate rental housing policy as a component of overall city planning – meaning that they need to access supply and demand for rental housing and include supply as a component of urban planning policy.
• Makes stable and consistent rent a priority: Rent stabilization is a key priority. Some new systems that the government is considering to keep rents from fluctuating include a rent review system, imposing a local benchmark rent, publicly announcing rental costs based on region and increasing regulatory review of rental prices.  
• Opposes highrisk practices from rental companies: The policy also warns against high-risk rental policy practices, including various forms of rental company intermediaries overcharging tenants.
• Pushes financial institutions to support rental housing: The government wants to push financial institutions to issue various types of products that would help fund rental businesses. This would make it easier for rental companies to get up and running which would, with luck, ultimately provide more options for landlords and tenants.

It is unclear exactly if or when all of these proposed items would be implemented. However, as governments at the local and national level have grown more strict with regards to housing construction and financing standards in recent years, it is likely that some version of these measures will be coming soon.

READ: Amid Reports of Rental Discounts, Should You Try to Renegotiate Your Lease?

Images: Wong Zihoo (via Unsplash)