Residents benefiting from housing reform

Writer: Zhang Yu  | Editor: Holly Wang  | From: Shenzhen Daily | Updated: 2019-08-16

Shenzhen residents have started to benefit from the city’s new policies on housing reform, according to a CCTV report.

Zheng Qingkui, a bus driver in Shenzhen, sees hope in a notice recently released by the city’s housing and construction bureau, which plans to provide 1,200 units of public rental housing for bus drivers and sanitation workers.

Zheng and his wife came to Shenzhen from Henan Province eight years ago. Although the couple earn about 10,000 yuan (US$1,422) a month, they are still daunted by the rising prices of commercial housing, as are many other migrant workers in the city.

On Aug. 3, 2018, the municipal government introduced a document on deepening housing reform and accelerating the development of a multi-source, multi-channel housing supply system to encourage both the rental and purchase of housing.

According to the new housing supply system, the amount of commercial housing will only be about 40 percent of the overall housing supply, while the remaining 60 percent will be government-subsidized housing.

Zheng, a bus driver who provides basic public services to society, is expected to benefit from the housing reform because he qualifies for public rental housing.

According to the policies, the floor area of such public rental housing is mainly 30 to 60 square meters. The rent is about 30 percent of the rent of commercial housing in the neighborhood.

In Futian District, where Zheng’s company is located, he will be able to rent a public rental apartment measuring around 60 square meters for only 1,000 yuan in the future.

Wang Cuilan, 54, has lived in Shenzhen for 27 years. Although Wang is diligent and capable, and her husband earns a good salary as an engineer, they were only able to rent a small apartment in an old residential estate in Huaqiangbei and have lived there for 20 years due to the soaring housing prices.

Now, Wang and her husband have finally purchased an affordable commercial house at a price far below the market price in Longgang District.

Yang Peng was employed by a technology company in Shenzhen after he received a doctoral degree from Peking University. Half a year after he started working at the company, he successfully applied for a government-subsidized apartment for talents at a price less than one-third of the market price.

According to the document, Shenzhen plans to build 1.7 million housing units by 2035, among which talent housing, affordable commercial housing and public rental housing should account for no less than 1 million units.