Long-term, multi-sized stylish rental spaces prove attractive options for China’s young urbanites
Smallest is a 15 square-metre rooms (an area roughly 3.75 metres by 4 metres, or 3 metres by 5 metres) priced at 4,200 yuan
A 10-minute walk from Guomao, Beijing’s central business district and an enclave for hundreds of thousand of office workers, an imposing building with a bright green-white facade stands apart from others surrounding it.
On the packed first floor is a small cafeteria space as well as a mini-gym, a yoga room, and lounge for hanging photos. Free bicycles are on offer at the entrance.
This is the flagship building of China Young Professional Apartments (CYPA) which offers long-term rental contracts for affluent, cosmopolitan young people in the city who cannot afford, or are unwilling to buy a home, but are willing to pay for a comfortable flat.
Wang Gehong, chief executive of CYPA, says 80 per cent of the tenants have an overseas education and 70 per cent are single women.
The compound offers more than a dozen different styles of living space. The smallest is a 15 square-metre room (an area 3.75 metres by 4 metres, or 3 metres by 5 metres) priced at 4,200 yuan all the way up to 140 sq metre houses priced at 25,000 yuan. A 60 sq metre room costs 8,900 yuan. Rents have risen steadily since operations began in 2014.
Wang said he is able to charge a 30 per cent premium (over nearby similar homes) due to the apartments’ design and careful vetting of tenants. The apartments boast details that might be common in the West but are rare in Beijing, where lease homes are notorious for poor plumbing and inefficient heating. To tackle these, Wang has installed sink disposal units that eliminate smell, and underfloor heating to keep the rooms warm. A mobile application can help tenants pay bills and open doors.