In the graduation season again, the demand for college students' rental housing has surged.
This year, the number of college graduates in my country exceeded 10 million for the first time, and many of them are the new generation of "post-00s".
Affected by the repeated outbreak of the new crown pneumonia, it is even more difficult for college students who have just walked out of the school to find a house.
How to "live" in a big city?
The new generation is struggling to find its own answers.
For college students who have just stepped out of school, the same anxiety as looking for a job is to find a satisfactory place to live.
Affected by the new crown pneumonia epidemic on the traditional rental model, this year also coincides with a record high number of college graduates, and many college students are facing new challenges in renting.
The Economic Daily reporter walked into the group of college graduates to explore their rental needs and the current situation of looking for a house.
Online housing search channels
"We were the first batch of graduates after the outbreak of the epidemic. At that time, the school did not allow graduates to return to school for the time being, so I checked the houses online at home. At that time, I was a little flustered, and I planned to look at a few more properties online as much as possible. Before joining the job, I set aside about a week to see the house offline." Lu Yi from Inner Mongolia is a graduate of China Agricultural University in 2020 and has a fresh memory of the rental experience when he just graduated.
Real estate agents are also adjusting the way they serve.
Zhang Xiaoqiang, who has 6 years of experience in housing leasing in Beijing, told reporters, "I have served several non-local college students who have been in contact with them before coming to Beijing. I will select a suitable area according to their needs and use online VR to see houses. Several sets of interested houses are identified in advance, so that the transaction cycle is shortened and the efficiency is improved.”
Today, graduates have gradually adapted to the changes in their lives in "Cloud Classroom" and "Cloud Graduation", and can use online resources to tap more possibilities.
In order to see more rental properties, in addition to the commonly used rental apps, social platforms such as WeChat group chats and Douban groups, as well as e-commerce platforms such as Xianyu and Xiaohongshu have also become high-frequency users of college graduates.
Lu Yi said: "Some landlords will directly post housing information on Xiaohongshu, and it is more convenient to be able to directly talk to the landlord under the post."
Through the introduction, the reporter joined a WeChat group called "summer rental group". Most of them are students who are about to graduate or have graduated. The remarks in the group chat clearly mark their respective majors and grades. From time to time in the group Someone will share detailed rental information.
"Most of the group are brothers and sisters, so it is relatively easy to find a room." A graduate in the group chat told reporters.
"The house is rented, but life is not." When the "post-00s" entered the society, their expectations for life also became concrete in the process of choosing a house.
Huang Hui, a senior analyst at Shell Research Institute, believes that "the post-00s are more open-minded and have advanced consumption concepts, and will gradually become the main force in the rental market, and the upgrade of rental consumption is the general trend."
There are a lot of gullies
For college students, rent often becomes a hurdle in renting a house.
"Graduates have a limited budget, and they are often most concerned about price." Zhang Xiaoqiang introduced to reporters.
"The rent in Beijing is too high. The current rent is close to half of the salary." Xi Xiaolin, who works near Sanyuan Bridge in Beijing, rented a loft structure house outside the East Fifth Ring Road. She expressed helplessness about the high rent.
Lu Yi currently rents in a community near Beijing West Railway Station. He also said that the high rent brings great pressure. "My friends and I rent a two-bedroom apartment. About 6,500 yuan per month.”
When the reporter communicated with a real estate agency in Beijing as a tenant, the other party introduced that taking a long-term lease for one year as an example, the rent is usually paid on a quarterly basis, but the first rent needs to be "deposited one for three", and one year's service is paid at one time. Fees and water, electricity, gas and other expenses during the lease period.
If the lease term is two years, the rent will increase by 3% in the second year.
In this regard, Zhao Xiuchi, a professor at the Institute of Economic and Social Development of the Megacities of Capital University of Economics and Business, and the vice president and secretary general of the Beijing Real Estate Law Society, believes that "rent is the income obtained by the landlord from renting the house, and it should include various costs of the house, such as The capital cost, maintenance fees, taxes and fees of investing in housing should also be considered, and high housing prices will naturally lead to high rents.”
In addition to high rents, "excessive rental periods" and "difficulty in finding a single room for short-term rentals" have also become "painful" for graduates.
A manager of a housing agency in Beijing told reporters that if you no longer need the house before the lease expires, you can choose to "sublet" or "resign", but both need to charge 50% to 70% of the monthly rent as a handling fee.
"For fresh graduates, it doesn't feel very friendly," said Xiao Yun, a fresh graduate of Nanjing University.
Solving problems together
"I will save the New Year's money and the internship salary in advance to cope with the possible increase in rent." Graduate Zhou Xi said.
"At first, I was also 'moonlight', but after I got used to it, I would take the initiative to adjust my expenses, such as going out for dinner less, and I would restrain unnecessary expenses." Lu Yi said.
Facing all kinds of troubles in renting a house, college students actively deal with it by increasing income and reducing expenditure.
Huang Hui suggested that, first of all, you should choose housing rental agencies carefully, and pay attention to the risk warning list issued by local housing construction and other relevant departments in a timely manner.
Second, pay rent in a short period of time, and pay attention to paying rent and deposit separately to ensure the security of the deposit.
Thirdly, it is necessary to use a standardized lease contract to reduce the risk caused by improper contract signing in renting.
Yao Yang, dean of the National Development Research Institute of Peking University, suggested online that powerful rental companies can waive the rental deposit of newly employed university graduates and adopt monthly rent payments to reduce the burden on graduates.
According to the reporter's observation, for fresh graduates, most long-term rental apartment agencies in the market have launched services such as "monthly rent payment" and "0 yuan moving".
In order to solve the problem of renting a house for graduates, the central government has clarified the top-level design of the housing security system at the national level, and many places have also promoted the introduction of welfare policies.
The affordable rental housing that aims to solve the housing difficulties of fresh graduates, new citizens, young people and other groups is one of them.
From the central level, in July last year, the State Council issued the "Opinions on Accelerating the Development of Affordable Rental Housing", proposing to expand the supply of affordable rental housing, alleviate the structural shortage of housing rental market, and promote a new type of urbanization centered on people. Promote the realization of housing for all people.
According to the plan, during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, 40 key cities will add 6.5 million sets of affordable rental housing, which is expected to solve the housing difficulties of 13 million people.
From a local perspective, in April this year, the Beijing Municipal Commission of Housing and Urban-rural Development announced that it will take the lead in starting a pilot program for newly graduated college students and start the docking work of affordable rental housing youth apartments in 2022. There are nearly 1,000 houses in the pilot project, all of which are fully furnished and delivered to new houses. The monthly rent for "moving in with a bag" is between 2,000 and 3,000 yuan, which is lower than the market average; in August last year, Chengdu also issued its implementation opinions on accelerating the development of affordable rental housing; Suzhou proposed in October last year that the next three years should be Provide no less than 100,000 talent apartments...
However, whether it is to add or renovate existing housing, a large amount of capital is required in the early stage, and it is mainly recovered gradually through future rental income, and the investment return period is relatively long.
Therefore, the development of the housing leasing market still needs to broaden the financing channels of housing leasing companies and attract social capital to enter.
Among them, public housing rental REITs are regarded as an important tool to solve the bottleneck of affordable rental housing development.
In June last year, affordable rental housing was included in the pilot scope of public infrastructure REITs.
In April this year, my country's first affordable rental housing REITs project was submitted to the National Development and Reform Commission, and industry insiders regarded this as a sign of breakthrough progress in the issuance of infrastructure REITs products for affordable rental housing.
On July 29, Hongtu Innovation Shenzhen Talent Housing REIT and CICC Xiamen Housing REIT were approved by the China Securities Regulatory Commission for registration. The relevant pilot work has been accelerated and is becoming an important measure for financial support to solve the housing difficulties of new citizens, young people and other groups.
"Indemnificatory rental housing REITs can provide local governments and companies with heavy rental housing assets with new channels to revitalize existing assets and raise equity funds, effectively alleviate and avoid capital pressure and financial risks of local governments and enterprises, and promote the housing rental market. Healthy development will also help to improve the original dilemma of large investment scale and long capital recovery period, thereby attracting more social capital to participate in the construction of affordable rental housing, speeding up the construction process of affordable rental housing and the scale of social supply, and promoting solutions The problem of renting a house in big cities." Guo Chunlei, member of the Investment Banking Committee of CITIC Construction Investment Securities, executive director of the Bond Underwriting Department and the Structured Financing Department, told reporters.
Lang Jingning