Shijingshan gives equal housing rights

Migrants could have access to public rental housing in Beijing from August for the first time, although only in the district of Shijingshan.　

Despite the move, the local authority said that so far, there are few applicants.　

Applicants without a Beijing hukou (household registration), whose families have no property in Beijing, can apply if they hold a temporary resident permit and have paid taxes for at least five years in the district since August 1, Shijingshan district government told the Global Times Thursday.

Applicants must earn an annual income of no more than 100,000 yuan ($15,720) per household of fewer than three people, meaning each couple should earn less than 4,000 yuan per month, said an official, surnamed Li, from Shijingshan district commission of housing and urban-rural development.　

The monthly rent will be 40 yuan per square meter, said Li.

"The rent's going to be a little lower than the market price of surrounding rental houses of the same size," said Li.

"The houses will be offered to qualified applicants chosen by lottery, but so far there are very few applicants in the pool," said Li.

Zhang Xu, an analyst with Homelink Real Estate, said the rent, according to their most recent statistics, will be only around 15 percent cheaper than the average rent in the capital.

The average rent in the city now is 3,540 yuan per month, and in Shijingshan, the average rent is 2,730 yuan per month for homes under 60-square-meters, Homelink said.

"It could somewhat benefit non-Beijing hukou holders if the location is good, and the selection process is strictly supervised," said Zhang, who added that the cost would still be over 30 percent of total income for an average family of three, which is still high.

The average annual income in Beijing is 18,154 yuan, according to a Xinhua News Agency report on July 30. And in Shijingshan, annual income is 14,329 yuan, according to the district government website.

Some local residents agree the rent would still be on the high side for them.　

"It would be a couple of hundred yuan cheaper, but we'd have to move further away, as well as going through all the paperwork, so I don't think I'll consider it," said a resident from Shandong Province, who has been sharing a 50-meter-square apartment in the district, which costs him 1,200 yuan per month.

In other areas of the city, public housing sees low occupancy rates, due to high rents and bad transportation links.　

Only one fourth of Beiwu Jiayuan, a public housing complex in Haidian district, completed in September, is occupied as the rent is slightly higher than the average rent in the district, Xinhua reported in December.