Shanghai to offer more land exclusively for rental homes development
Shanghai government realising runaway home prices becoming a serious stumbling block to its transformation into a global financial and shipping centre
Shanghai’s land distribution for residential developments is tilting towards rental homes, after the city auctioned 29 sites to be used solely for just leasing projects over the past six months.
Cen Fukang, a deputy director at Shanghai Planning, Land and Resources Administration, said a bigger chunk of the new 170 square kilometre land supply reserved for residential properties from now until 2030, will now be earmarked for rental homes – in a further move to rein in home prices in the mainland’s most-developed metropolis.
“We will use different channels to increase land supply for rental homes,” he said on Thursday. “Shanghai will also encourage the development of smaller flats to meet housing demand.”
In July, Shanghai was the first mainland city to auction land parcels slated only for rental homes – properties that can be only be created by developers for leasing, rather than sale.
In the second half of 2017, the city sold 29 land sites dedicated to rental homes, on which a combined 40,000 units can be built covering an area of 2.4 million square metres, compared with 1.8 million square metres in 2016.
Cen did not reveal the exact percentage of land slated for rental homes in coming years, but Shanghai currently has 660 square kilometres of land reserved for residential use.