Rising Rents

In the summer of 2018, over eight million tenants in Beijing suffered due to a surge in the cost of rent. Within three months, rent has risen by 15 to 40 percent – the rent and utility fees combined surpassed 40 percent of many tenants’ monthly income. Several rental enterprises have been jumped on for pushing up rents after they monopolized the market. Some enterprises were even publicly criticized by the rental regulatory authority. Insiders cautioned that rental agencies are not the masterminds behind the soaring prices and said the real villain was the imbalance between supply and demand. Regulation of rental prices has also made matters worse, and the solution lies in increasing housing supply.