‘Life is extremely difficult’: high rents in China’s big cities a challenge for migrant workers

Zhang Jing, 30, moved from Jiangxi province to Shanghai eight years ago, with the dream of making it big in mainland China’s commercial and business capital. But now he says it is just a pipe dream.

And he has grounds for resentment – the high cost of living in Shanghai. The property sales agent pays 4,000 yuan (US$580) a month in rent for a 30 square metre apartment in Tangqiao, in the city’s Pudong district.

Rent accounts for half his monthly pay. “Landlords, whether owning commercial or residential properties, have been the top beneficiaries of the city’s economic boom,” he says. “The rents just keep climbing and increase our living costs.”

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Shanghai has a population of about 10 million residents who have come from other parts of China to live and work. Most do not have a local hukou, or household registration, and cannot buy homes in the city amid austerity measures aimed at reining in property prices.

The demand for rental homes is expected to hit four million units, and Shanghai’s municipal government plans to build thousands of homes for renting. These are earmarked for low-income residents, start-up entrepreneurs and professionals working in the technology sector. The city also plans to allocate more land for rental homes.

And it is not alone. The central government and other major cities across mainland China are also working to expand the supply of rental homes as a way of attracting talent and bolstering economic growth.

Global property services company JLL said 750,000 newly completed rental homes would hit the markets in China’s six major cities – Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hangzhou and Chengdu – by the end of 2022. The new supply represents about a sixfold increase over the current stock of 135,000 units in these six cities, according to JLL.