Text / Pang Wuji
Graduation season is supposed to be the peak season for housing rental, but this year, the rental market in some cities has exposed the situation of "hard to find one customer".
Recently, the news of "Zhengzhou landlords set up stalls for rent" has been on the hot search.
According to media reports, the listing price of some landlords has dropped by 40% compared with 2017, but it is still difficult to sell.
Is "one customer hard to find" a common phenomenon?
What happened to the rental market?
"One hard to find"?
According to media reports, Zhengzhou's rental market has changed from "hard to find one room" in the past to "hard to find one customer".
A landlord lowered the rent from the starting price of 1,800 yuan to 1,300 yuan, but there are still no tenants.
For long-term rental apartments in not so good locations, the monthly rent per room has also dropped significantly.
Yan Yuejin, research director of the Think Tank Center of E-House Research Institute, told China News Agency that in recent years, housing rents in Zhengzhou have fallen significantly, and the decline in rents has not boosted rental demand, and the vacancy situation has increased, especially In some areas with dense resettlement houses, there is a situation of "hard to find one customer".
Many industry experts believe that in recent years, Zhengzhou's rental market has indeed cooled down.
According to the data provided by the Zhuge Housing Data Research Center, in July 2022, the average house rent price in Zhengzhou was 25.07 yuan per square meter per month, which has dropped from 31 yuan per square meter per month at the historical peak of the local rental market. Go 20%.
Statistics from the Shell Research Institute also show that in July, among the 40 key cities in the country, the rent level in Zhengzhou fell by more than 8% year-on-year, second only to Harbin.
In addition, cities such as Langfang, Lanzhou, Changchun, and Dongguan also experienced relatively high year-on-year rental declines.
Generally speaking, the fluctuation of commercial housing leasing and buying and selling market roughly shows a positive correlation.
The demand for housing is strong, and where the population is concentrated, the rent will rise accordingly; conversely, the sluggish demand for the property market will also drag down the rental market.
Zhang Dawei, chief analyst of Centaline Real Estate, pointed out that Zhengzhou suffered from the double impact of the epidemic and floods last year, and the real estate market was under great pressure.
When the demand for housing is sluggish, more houses will be available for rent, which will also put pressure on the rental market.
Weak rents and sluggish demand, is this the norm?
Since the beginning of this year, affected by the repeated epidemics, the slowdown of macroeconomic growth, and the cooling of the real estate market, the housing rental market in key cities has indeed cooled down slightly.
According to the statistics of the Shell Research Institute, in July, even with the boost of seasonal factors, rents in 28 of the 40 large and medium-sized cities still fell year-on-year, accounting for 70% of the total, and 20 of them reached the same period in the last four years. low.
The Shell Research Institute believes that in addition to seasonal factors, rents are also affected by tenants' personal income, willingness to pay rent and other factors. Under the background of increasing uncertainty in the economic situation, the rents in many cities at this stage are not comparable to the same period last year. rising conditions.
differentiation intensifies
It’s important to note that a sluggish rental market is not universal.
The rental market is similar to the housing transaction market, and it is also clearly differentiated. The rental market in some first- and second-tier cities is still strong.
According to the Zhuge Housing Data Research Center, the top five cities with month-on-month rent increases in July were Shanghai, Nanjing, Wuxi, Beijing, and Fuzhou, with month-on-month increases of 1.81%, 1.77%, 1.45%, 1.37%, and 1.36% respectively.
The industrial structure of these five cities is relatively complete, and the demand for employment is relatively stable. It coincides with the influx of a large number of graduates into the market, and the demand for leasing increases, which increases the driving force of rent growth.
From a year-on-year perspective, the average rents in these five cities showed an upward trend compared with the same period last year. Among them, Beijing's rents increased the most year-on-year, reaching 7.66%.
Huang Hui, a senior analyst at the Shell Research Institute, told the China News Agency that in recent years, the scale of rental demand between different cities has intensified.
She pointed out that in general, with the effective supervision of the housing rental market and the increase in the supply of affordable rental housing in recent years, the contradiction between supply and demand in my country's housing rental market has tended to ease.
However, due to the location attributes of housing itself and the impact of the epidemic, there are differences in the scale of demand between different cities and even regions in the same city.
According to the data of the Shell Research Institute, in 2022 (as of August 25), the monthly rent level in the key 40 cities across the country will be 37.6 yuan per square meter, a decrease of 3.2% compared with the whole year of last year.
Huang Hui pointed out that from the perspective of demand, the foreign population is the main force in the rental market in various places. After experiencing the battle of "robbing people" in cities, more and more talents have flowed into the first-tier and popular second-tier cities, which has promoted the heat of the local market.
For cities with less attractive talent, rental demand continues to weaken.
From the perspective of supply, favorable policies for the housing rental market have been launched, and the number of market-oriented rental housing and affordable rental housing has continued to increase.
In addition, due to the impact of the epidemic, the demand for new and exchange leases has also weakened.
Therefore, in the context of easing supply and demand in the market, it is more difficult for cities and regions with weak rental demand to rent houses.
Long-term hotel rental instead of renting a house?
In some cities, landlords also face competition from hotels.
In some cities, some hotels offer short-term or even long-term rentals.
According to reports, in a budget hotel in Jiangtou, Xiamen, the single-day room rate for a large-bed room is about 150 yuan, including utilities, and the monthly rent is 3,000 yuan.
The front desk of the hotel can collect express delivery, and someone helps to clean.
Huang Hui believes that the hotel's low-cost long-term rental business is mainly to make up for the loss of vacant rooms due to the epidemic, and it is mostly a phased revenue-generating measure.
However, what is behind this phenomenon is the pursuit of rental quality by tenants.
At this stage, "post-90s" and "post-00s" have become the main customer groups in the rental market, and they are more willing to pay for the quality of housing and services.
The location of the hotel is generally convenient for transportation and has high service quality. Therefore, when the price is similar, the tenants will prefer the hotel.
On the other hand, the lease term of a hotel is usually shorter and more flexible than that of a residential lease. The tenant can adjust the place of residence as the job changes without paying the corresponding liquidated damages, which is a good transitional residence for many tenants. choose.