Housing rent is directly related to the living cost and living standard of the renters, and has always been concerned by the public.
On April 21st, Wang Zhen, director of Shanghai Housing Management Bureau, said when he was a guest on "Interview with People’s Livelihood in 2023" that Shanghai would take measures such as playing the role of "stabilizer" for affordable rental housing, prohibiting intermediaries from driving up prices, and establishing price monitoring and early warning to keep the housing rent level in Shanghai stable.
Three measures to keep the housing rent level stable
"In recent years, the housing rental market in Shanghai has been generally stable." Wang Zhen said that in order to keep the housing rent level in Shanghai stable, under the overall framework of the Price Law and in combination with the implementation of the Shanghai Housing Leasing Regulations (hereinafter referred to as the Regulations), Shanghai will take measures from three aspects:
The first is to play the role of "stabilizer" of affordable rental housing.It is clear that the rent of affordable rental housing should be lower than the market-oriented rent level of the same quality in the same lot, the rent should be below 10% of the market-oriented rent, and the annual increase should not be higher than the market-oriented rent increase in the same period and not higher than 5%. At the same time, it will be publicized to the public to guide market-oriented lessors to set reasonable prices.
Second, it is strictly forbidden for housing leasing enterprises and real estate brokerage agencies to fabricate and spread price increase information., drive up prices, and be restrained by increasing investigation and self-discipline in the industry.
The third is to establish a housing rental price monitoring and early warning mechanism.It is clearly stipulated in the "Regulations" that the municipal government can take price intervention measures such as price increase declaration, rent restriction or rent increase in accordance with the law under certain circumstances that the housing rent has increased significantly or may increase significantly.
Incorporate lease management into social governance system
On February 1st, the "Regulations" were officially implemented. Wang Zhen introduced that this legislation adheres to the problem orientation, focuses on practical problems, highlights the people’s livelihood attributes of housing leasing, and builds a housing leasing system with diversified suppliers, standardized business services and stable leasing relationship to meet the multi-level housing needs of residents in megacities. In the process of legislation, there are three main considerations.
The first is to standardize leasing behavior.For the form of housing lease in which residents trade hand in hand, we should guide the parties to self-regulate and self-discipline by clarifying the rental requirements and standards and balancing the rights and obligations of the parties to the lease. For the three forms of listing and renting through real estate brokerage agencies, housing leasing enterprises acting as agents and centralized rental housing, we emphasize standardized management, and establish a whole-process supervision system from subject filing, real-name employment, housing verification, registration and filing to fund supervision, as well as relevant prohibitive provisions, so as to further improve market rules.
The second is the coordinated development of the market and security.Strengthen forward-looking systematic planning, while promoting the stable and healthy development of the housing rental market, focus on accelerating the development of affordable rental housing, determine the system positioning, formulate special plans, clarify the construction and management requirements, and give full play to the demonstration and leading role of affordable rental housing in the entire housing rental system.
The third is to bring lease management into the social governance system.While clarifying the responsibilities of the relevant departments of the city and district, aiming at the weak links and gaps existing in grassroots governance and the difficulties and problems encountered in the daily management of towns and villages, we will establish and improve the housing lease governance mechanism of urban planning, compartmentalization, responsibility of towns and villages, assistance from villages and industry self-discipline, strengthen the four-level linkage of cities, districts, towns and villages, and form a joint force with multiple governance to further enhance the effectiveness of grassroots governance.
Write group rent into local legislation for the first time
For the group rent behavior, the Regulations, on the basis of summing up the experience and practices of Shanghai’s group rent governance in recent years, first wrote the group rent into local legislation, taking a multi-pronged approach to further improve the efficiency of group rent governance.
The first is to clarify the criteria for identifying group rents.The minimum rental unit, non-residential space that cannot be rented separately, the number of people living in each room and the per capita living area proposed by government regulations have been optimized and improved accordingly, and they have been raised to local legislation.
The second is to optimize the law enforcement process of group rent.In view of the problems strongly reflected by the masses, once the group rent cases are discovered, they can be directly punished to improve the efficiency of law enforcement and increase the punishment, raising the fine from the original maximum of 100,000 yuan to the maximum of 200,000 yuan.
The third is to highlight the key supervision of subletting.In view of the prominent problem of "second landlord" group rent in practice, it is clear that individuals who sublet houses for profit and engage in housing rental business activities should register as market participants according to law, and will be punished if they violate the regulations.
The fourth is to implement the responsibility of territorial governance.Street offices and township people’s governments are required to regularly organize the investigation of hidden dangers of group rent. If illegal situations are found, they should urge rectification, start law enforcement procedures in a timely manner, and carry out rectification through joint law enforcement when necessary.
Shanghai will rely on the refined urban management mechanism and work with relevant departments to study and formulate a plan to further improve the comprehensive management of group rents in Shanghai, issue documents to strengthen the management of individual housing subletting in Shanghai, and increase the guidance, supervision and support for the management of grassroots group rents.
"The problem of group rent actually reflects that the supply structure of Shanghai housing rental market needs to be further improved. In the process of governance, we will adhere to the combination of unblocking and blocking." Wang Zhen said, on the one hand, vigorously promote the development of affordable rental housing; On the other hand, standardize the implementation of the "N+1" model of agency leasing, strictly supervise housing leasing enterprises to carry out agency leasing business, and promote the transformation from illegal group leasing to standardized sharing.