Mixed response to group rentals

By Qian Yanfeng (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2009-06-15 23:55

SHANGHAI: A draft law intended to curb group rental in the city is receiving mixed reviews from the public with suggestions for a more balanced approach from the local authorities.

A group rental is an apartment that is illegally divided into a number of smaller units and rented to a group of people at a much lower price. The draft law, which is now posted online to solicit public opinions, requires a minimum of seven sq m of living space for each tenant.

That means tenants who used to live below that standard – mostly the immigrated poor who could not afford bigger rooms – would have to pay a higher price for accommodation in the future so as to obey the law, which, however, does not say whether the authorities would help them cope with higher living costs thereafter.

But such a government decision has come following years of controversy and debate on the potential hazards of group rentals, where the high concentration of tenants brings as a natural result serious security and health problems among other matters.

In July 2007, six tenants died in a fire caused by electricity shortcut in a group apartment in Shanghai, reportedly due to lack of proper management.

Shortly after, a gas-poisoning incident among group tenants also took the lives of another three in February 2008.

Zhao Yueru, a post-graduate who is now looking for a job in Shanghai, said she had terrible experiences living with six others in an apartment of about 100 sq m, which had serious hygiene and security problems.

"That could not be possibly enjoyable of course," she said. "But the greatest advantage is we could pay less, which is why somehow we still managed to put up with all the problems."

Zhao said she only had to pay 600 yuan for the room, much less than the average price of a one-room apartment of 1,500 yuan in the city's inner ring.

Wang Shiqi, a real estate lawyer from a Shanghai-based law firm, said the proposed law has in effect "squeezed the living space of the poor, who cannot possibly afford higher rental in a city like Shanghai, where ever-increasing housing prices are pushing many migrant workers to settle in a small and cheap room."

He said the law would obviously help the government supervise illegally leased apartments, but it has failed to take into consideration of the needs of the poor.

He suggested the authorities should hand out subsidies for those poor people if they are forced to rent bigger rooms, or the government should step up investment in low-rent housing to provide more with affordable houses.

But a researcher from Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, who would not be named, said that the law is still reasonable in the sense that it also needs to protect the interests of other tenants who live in the same residential community as the group tenants.

"Don't forget that people living in the same community are also victims of group rentals with the widespread hygiene and security problems just steps away from their home. It has lowered their living quality and marred the local environment," he said.

An over-crowded city landscape would also mar the city's future development with its already limited natural resources, he said.

But he also thinks that the government could come up with a more balanced approach instead of just putting a ban on group rentals, which are hard to ban considering the needs of the poor.

"Educating people to develop better hygiene habits and putting in place stricter management rules would be better than a ban," he said.