Developer gets creative with new rental apartment project
A tenant checks his newly released rental apartment in Xinjiangwan Town in Yangpu District.
Gui Weilin, a Shanghai native who owns a property in downtown Xuhui District, moved into a newly released rental apartment project in Yangpu on Saturday.
She used to spend more than two hours a day commuting between her home in Tianlin community and workplace in Xinjiangwan Town. The rental apartment is 15-minutes ride by bike from her company.
She has rented her apartment in Xuhui, and only needs to pay a difference of 3,000 yuan (US$ 429) to live in the 90-square-meter brand-new rental.
"I can get up at 8:30am every day, an hour-and-half later than usual," Gui said. "It is definitely a good deal for me and my husband."
The first group of about 700 tenants, like Gui mainly teachers from Fudan University, moved into the first rental apartment project of Shanghai Chengtou Group, in Yangpu District, over the weekend.
The 852 Creative Apartment units in four buildings in Xinjiangwan Town aims to meet the accommodation needs of young talented people working in nearby areas.
It is part of the city government's efforts to create a new housing system which places equal importance on sale and leasing to benefit young talent from outside of Shanghai as well as local people who cannot afford a home of their own.
"Shanghai Chengtou has secured around 15,000 rental units in six major communities in Yangpu, Minhang districts and the Pudong New Area, which will be completed by 2022 to cater for the demands of high-end professionals," said Zhou Hao, vice president of the group.
The first batch of rental units in Yangpu's Bay Valley, which is adjacent to the Jiangwan Campus of Fudan University, features several compact layouts, with one-bedroom units accounting for more than 70 percent.
There are also larger units catering for the demands of family tenants, with a size of around 70 square meters or 90 square meters.
Representatives of the first group of tenants receive the keys to their rental units in Yangpu on Saturday.
A newly released Creative Apartment unit in Yangpu.
4.2 yuan/square meter/day
The rental apartments are open to the public without any threshold. The rental price is about 4.2 yuan per square meter per day. The property management and information fees are included.
Fudan University has signed an agreement with Chengtou to rent 352 apartments at the Bay Valley for leading professors, young teachers and staff.
"The university is solving the housing problems facing many teachers and staff by leasing apartments or allocating the university's existing houses," said Zhou Yaming, vice president of Fudan.
Xu Jianhua, deputy director of Yangpu, said the Creative Apartment project will help Yangpu's ambition to create an entrepreneurship and innovation industrial system, which requires a large number of professionals from across the world.
Wu Liupo is a senior engineer who works for a Yangpu-based tech company focusing on accurate positioning based on China's BeiDou Satellite system. He rents a 35-square-meter bachelor's apartment with a monthly rental of over 4,000 yuan.
"I can walk to my office now, and the full housekeeping services allows me to focus on my work," Wu said.
Community managers, consultants, security and cleaners offer all kinds of services for tenants.
A smart system allows inhabitants to pay utility charges or finish online grocery shopping through a mobile App, said Dai Weiqiang, general manger with the property management company of the project.
The Creative Apartment complex has also developed a public space covering 1,000 square meters with shared kitchens, laundry rooms, library, gyms and recreational space. Shared offices, classrooms and exhibition halls have also be prepared to meet the demands of university teachers, entrepreneurs and high-tech company employees, Dai said.
"I used to have to keep relocating because of frequent rising rentals, as well as lack of privacy and supplementary facilities," Wu said. "Our requirement is quite simple: clean, stable and a private space."
According to Shanghai's 13th Five-Year Plan on housing, about 1.7 million new housing units will be added by the end of 2020, an increase of 60 percent over the previous five years.
Of the new housing, around 450,000 units are "commodity houses," which are defined as residential properties outside of the city's subsidized low-income public housing program. Some 700,000 units will be reserved for leasing.
Tenants exercise in a gym of the Creative Apartment project in Yangpu.
The kitchen and washing space of a Creative Apartment unit.
A bedroom in a Creative Apartment unit in Yangpu's Bay Valley.
Bunk beds at a Creative Apartment unit.
