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New rule to push rents up

New rule to push rents up

Write: Arlene [2011-05-20]

A new regulation which prohibits apartments being divided to accommodate more tenants would probably push up rents by around 5 percent, real estate agencies claim.

According to the regulation which took effect Feb. 1, landlords would also be forbidden from leasing basements and balconies, the Shenzhen Economic Daily reported yesterday.

Per capita rent area has to be no less than 6 square meters. That means a 50-square-meter apartment should accommodate no more than eight people.

Offenders would be subject to fines between 5,000 yuan (US$759) and 30,000 yuan, the paper said.

However, some people preferred to have co-tenants to lessen the cost, the paper said.

A woman, identified as Xiaoyu, was paying 850 yuan a month for a 10-square-meter room a former balcony in an apartment in the Yitiancun residential compound in Futian District.

The room was 50 yuan cheaper than the small rooms in the apartment, Xiaoyu said.

She said there was only one kitchen and one bathroom in the apartment, which housed six tenants.

We have to take turns to use the kitchen and the bathroom, she said.

A rent increase. . .will increase our cost burden, she said.

It was impossible for low-income earners to rent a whole apartment, said a landlord in an urban village in Futian, identified only as Yin.

Yin s 50-square-meter apartment housed eight tenants, the paper said.

The new regulation would probably force rents up because an increasing number of people had come to Shenzhen looking for work since the end of the Spring Festival holidays, said a manager with the Huanggang branch of Shi Hua Real Estate.

The rent for a three-room apartment in Futian had risen to 4,000 yuan, said an agent with Centaline Property. (Li Hao)