Beiwu follow-up 11: Beiwu Jiayuan and rents

konjaku: in July 2012, a one-bedroom apartment in Beiwu Jiayuan is listed at 3418 yuan ($535) on a real-estate board. The area is desirable and the facility is well-built, compared to other government built public housing(below). In 2011-01, Haidian district made an agreement to rent out empty units in Beiwu Jiayuan to technological workers in the area. “An official at the Beiwu Jiayuan said that taking a 60 square meter residential unit as an example, this would lease at 2600 yuan a month for 3 years, and 2700 yuan for 5 years. The rent would be collected and paid once every half year to the villagers. The rent amount would not be allowed to float during this time period.” (Beiwu follow-up 2). The articles here, from 6 months later, give a typical rent as 3800 yuan, and say subsidies are not yet determined. In any case, Beiwu Jiayuan seems to be a success at providing income for the Beiwu village committee and residents, provided these empty units are being rented. Still, even if a village household received the total of 3800 a month from the rent of their empty unit, this is still less than the seven or eight thousand yuan a month Zhang Beiqing claimed she received  from renting units in her building to migrant workers (Beiwu follow-up 7: view of a villager), before the demolition of the village.

More than 700 technological workers obtain apartments in earmarked  “human assets rental units,” getting a subsidy from both their companies and the government, paying only 1200 yuan a month in rent

2011-07-13   Xinhua net

http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2011-07/31/c_121749023.htm

From the government and business subsidies, the rent of a two-bedroom is just 1200 yuan, half the market price.” Until he put his signature on the rental agreement, Xing Zhimeng hardly dared to believe it. He and some fellow workers in the Bejing Power Resources Science and Technology Corporation are moving into the Zhongguancun  Fengtai Garden first group of set aside “human assets rental units.”

The Fengtai Garden first group of  human assets rental units is in the Dawayao Oasis Homes residential complex. In all there are 48 two bedroom suites with north/south breezes. Several other residential complexes have contributed units, adding up to more than 700.

According to the Fengtai Gardens deputy section chief, these units were originally replacement housing for displaced villagers, but more was built than needed. Now these empty units have been earmarked for business workers. There are three companies in the first group using these subsidized rental units: Bejing Power Resources Science and Technology Corporation, Beijing Yingnuo Biotechnology corporation, and the Zhongtie Electrification Corporation. For the renters,”people of ability” who bring new ideas and know-how, there is one subsidy from the government, and another from the corporations which employ them. (details omitted).

In Haidianyuan (a high technology economic zone)  there are 600 vacancies given over to be “human assets rental units.” Some are located in Sujiatuo, and others in Beiwu Jiayuan. The Sujiatuo public housing development was financed by the government. The monthly rent was fixed at 19.75 yuan per square meter, making a one bedroom apartment 711 yuan, and a two-bedroom 1027 yuan, lower than the market price.

The Beijing Weijia Biotechnology corporation has taken ten units. Their arrangement with the government is that employees who have a master’s degree or the equivalent can live in the public housing rent free, although it must be two persons per apartment.

The Beijing Kejing Biological Products Corporation subsidizes 8 apartments in Sujiatuo, and 2 in Beiwu Jiayuan. The Beiwu Jiayuan apartments are the surplus of housing built for displaced villagers.  The rent is determined by net costs (maintenance costs, insurance against depreciation or loss of rent, management fees, etc), making a two bedroom apartment 3681 yuan ($576) a month. Because in this company employees have different levels of seniority and different academic records, the company gives some a 40%, others a 70% subsidy. Quality control technician Yu Dan rents an apartment in Beiwu Jiayuan, She gets a 70% subsidy, making her monthly rent 1100 yuan.

Reporter Dong Changqing

Survey of 600 apartments designated as Human Assets Housing

http://news.sciencenet.cn/sbhtmlnews/2011/8/247274.html?id=247274

Beiwu Jiayuan is located in the western part of the 4th ring, convenient for commuting. The facilities lack nothing, but at 3800 for a two-bedroom, many wage-earning families will recoil

At the time when work ends, Beiwu jiayuan is filled inside with a stream of people. These office workers are capable of enjoying the favorable location of living in the 4th ring.

Sujiatuo is far away, but rents are cheap. Beiwu Jiayuan, has a favorable location in the 4th ring, but its rents are high. Many companies are faced with the problem of how to allocate housing between these two areas. A Beiwu Jiayuan building management staff revealed that, because there is a surplus of residential units, the residents registered their empty units with building management. Then building management and the government consulted, and put these in the category of “human assets rental units,” fixing the rent at 3800. There are 161 such empty units dispersed throughout the complex. Since at the time Haidian district entered into the “human assets rental units” policy it had no  policy of tax exemption, for this reason the 3800 figure includes, beside the rent amount, a building maintenance fee and taxes.

Miss Feng works in a certain IT company. She said, “Our company has allotted  ten apartments in Beiwu Jiayuan and Sujiatuo, but because rents in Beiwu Jiayuan are so high, we have done a swap with another company and now have all our apartments in Sujiatuo. Our company policy is to allot apartments to those employees who are not residents of the locality, on the basis of seniority. None of us have our own cars, we have to rely on public transportation to get to work in “Shangdi” (a section of Haidian district), but there are few buses there. Besides, at night in this area there are many streetlights which are dark, returning home at night is fairly dangerous.”

Mr Han, from Harbin is a trainee at an Imaging Technology Company on Suzhou street in Zhongguancun. His company has eight apartments in Sujiatuo, 2 in Beiwu Jiayuan. “To tell you the truth,” he said, “although we are happy to receive the subsidy from the government, there are problems with public housing (in Sujiatuo). We aren’t well protected from theft, the entrance can’t be locked. The steel border of the sink had a sharp edge, you can see how I cut my arm on it. Probably to reduce the net cost they cut corners on the building construction.”

In contrast to Sujiatuo, Beiwu Jiayuan is in a nice environment and its facilities leave nothing to be desired. Commuting is also convenient. However, at 3800 yuan a month, many employees are frightened away. In regards to a rent subsidy, an official with Haidian district said the matter was still under study, and a subsidy amount had not yet been determined.

Science Times 2011-08-06

konjaku: the following article states that 161 apartments in Beiwu Jiayuan have been allotted as human assets housing, In addition, there is a plan to build more apartments in Beiwu Jiayuan for this purpose, to be finished in 2012.

Beijing Haidian government distributes “human assets housing” to companies –the most one company can receive is 10 apartments

http://news.dichan.sina.com.cn/bj/2011/05/30/325626.html

(Excerpts)

In order to solve the problem of insufficient housing for workers with technological know-how employed in companies in the area, Haidian district has started a project, “human assets housing” which involves offering empty residential units to companies to house their workers, These empty units are in public housing projects, residential buildings in industrial parks, college and university buildings in the Zhongguancun science institution district, and privately built apartment buildings. Also, apartment buildings will be built in various locations.

Yesterday Haidian gave out the first group of human assets housing units, 600 units among 88 companies. The plan is also to build in Haidian 5215 units, with all construction finished in the early part of 2012. The first stage will be to build in Sujiatuo C02, and in Beiwu Jiayuan.

The plan is to “build new apartments as one batch, offer existing units as one batch.” As of today, 600 already existing apartments were offered to companies. 439 were in Sujiatuo C02, 161 in Beiwu Jiayuan, Individuals cannot directly apply for these apartments. The government turns them over to companies, which distributes them among their employees at their discretion.

Reporter: are the owners of Beiwu Jiayuan (the Beiwu villagers as represented by the village committee) willing to give over to the government the empty units, with the government fixing the rental amounts?

Haidian district housing director He Jie: the owners in general are willing. The government fixes the rental amount over a long period, and collects the rent every 6 months, it is very reliable. A two bedroom apartment goes for 4000 yuan.

Beiwu Jiayuan 北坞嘉园

Sujiatuo 苏家坨

Human assets rental units 人才公租房

Interior of a Beiwu Jiayuan apartment, renting for 3418 yuan, July 2012: