英闻天下——507 Apartment Rental Market Recovering in Cities

 　　The latest stats from the National Bureau of Statistic¹ shows apartment rental² rates have increased by some 3.7-percent in March across China.

 

　　CRI's Wang Xiao has more on the rental market in the major cities, including Shenzhen, Shanghai and Beijing.

 

　　Tang Zhisheng, manager of Shenzhen Jia Shun³ Real Estate, says the apartment rent has increased by 10 percent or more in March this year.

 

　　"Take Futian district for example. An apartment with one bedroom and one living room cost you about 2700 yuan a month last year. But now you have to spend 3500 yuan on it."

 

　　According to local real estate agencies, apartment rents in some districts in Shenzhen have even increased by 20 percent last month.

 

　　Su Wei, who owns a photography shop in Shanghai, has a similar problem. He spent more than 100 thousand yuan to decorate and enlarge his shop earlier this year. But now he has to worry about the rising rent.

 

　　"I started to rent this place in 2008 for 7500 yuan a month. Now I have to pay 9500 yuan a month. I guess 2 years later the rent will be more than 10 thousand a month."

 

　　Su Wei says there is no room to bargain with his landlord.

 

　　"He says if you don't rent this apartment, someone else will. He can find someone to rent this place almost immediately."

 

　　Zhou Zhifeng, general director of Shanghai Jones Lang LaSalle Company, says that landlords generally expect the CPI will increase significantly, which pushes up apartment rents.

 

　　"Because the landlords expect that the CPI will increase sharply in the future, so they raise the apartment rent. But the truth is the rising rent pushes up the CPI."

 

　　But things are different in Beijing. Yu Zhong, manager of a Homelink Real Estate branch office in Chaoyang district, says they haven't seen abrupt⁴ rent increase.

 

　　"The year-on-year jump of Beijing apartment rent is about 5 percent, and we don't see sharp increase this year."

 

　　Yu Zhong says the number of apartments available for rent is increasing by 30 percent. Industry insiders analyze⁵ that many landlords are reluctant to sell their apartment due to the new real estate regulations, so they turn to the rental market.

 

　　Lin Qian, vice⁶ president of Homelink real estate, says the increasing housing resources ensure the stability of the market in Beijing.

 

　　"Based on previous experience, the government's recent strict policy on real estate helps to enlarge the housing resources. That means the more the housing price, the more stable the rental price."

 

　　It seems that, for now, we can expect rents in the capital to stay fairly stable. In the near future, however, the opposite seems to hold true for the rest of the country over the near-term.

 

　　For CRI, I'm Wang Xiao.

1 statistic   

n.统计量；adj.统计的，统计学的

参考例句：

• Official statistics show real wages declining by 24%.官方统计数字表明实际工资下降了24%。
• There are no reliable statistics for the number of deaths in the battle.关于阵亡人数没有可靠的统计数字。

2 rental   

n.租赁，出租，出租业

参考例句：

• The yearly rental of her house is 2400 yuan.她这房子年租金是2400元。
• We can organise car rental from Chicago O'Hare Airport.我们可以安排提供从芝加哥奥黑尔机场出发的租车服务。

3 shun   

vt.避开，回避，避免

参考例句：

• Materialists face truth,whereas idealists shun it.唯物主义者面向真理，唯心主义者则逃避真理。
• This extremist organization has shunned conventional politics.这个极端主义组织有意避开了传统政治。

4 abrupt   

adj.突然的，意外的；唐突的，鲁莽的

参考例句：

• The river takes an abrupt bend to the west.这河突然向西转弯。
• His abrupt reply hurt our feelings.他粗鲁的回答伤了我们的感情。

5 analyze   

vt.分析，解析 (=analyse)

参考例句：

• We should analyze the cause and effect of this event.我们应该分析这场事变的因果。
• The teacher tried to analyze the cause of our failure.老师设法分析我们失败的原因。

6 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。