Six departments jointly issued a document to strengthen the supervision of asset-light housing rental companies.
On the 26th, six departments including the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development (hereinafter referred to as the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development) and the National Development and Reform Commission jointly issued the "Opinions on Strengthening the Supervision of Asset-Light Housing Leasing Enterprises" (hereinafter referred to as the "Opinions"). All localities are required to strengthen the management of housing rental enterprises, carry out supervision of housing rental funds, prohibit the use of housing rental consumer loans, and reasonably regulate housing rental levels.
Guide housing rental companies to return to the origins of housing rental services
Relevant departments pointed out that in recent years, my country's housing rental market has developed rapidly, the market operation is generally stable, and the rent level has stabilized but declined. It has played an important role in solving residents’ housing problems. But at the same time, some asset-light housing leasing companies engaged in subletting operations (referred to as housing leasing companies in this article) use mismatched rental payment periods to establish capital pools, control housing stock, and drive up rents. Some even use the lessee's credit to obtain credit funds. , carry out financial business in disguised form. In particular, recently, the capital chain of a small number of housing leasing companies has been broken, seriously affecting the legitimate rights and interests of the parties involved in housing leasing.
At the beginning of this month, the New York Stock Exchange announced that it would suspend trading in Danke Apartments and initiate delisting procedures. Danke Apartment was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in January 2020, and it took just over a year until it was delisted.
Chen Xiao, an analyst at the Zhuge Housing Data Research Center, said that some long-term rental apartment companies such as Danke Apartment have always adopted the operating model of "high in, low out" and "long in, short out", that is: high Rent the house from the landlord, and then rent it to the tenant using a low-rent model. At the same time, using the form of "rent loan", use the tenant's name to apply for a rental loan from a third-party financial institution to pay one year's rent in advance, and then use the rent recovered in advance Expand the scale or operation and form a rent pool, and achieve the purpose of crazy expansion through the time difference between receipt and payment.
“This model will be unsustainable in the long term. Once an emergency occurs or the operation is poor, the company will fall into the predicament of a broken capital chain, and the hidden danger of corporate thunderstorms has long been laid.” Chen Xiao said, Catalyzed by the epidemic in 2020, the overall downward pressure on the leasing market has increased. The job market has been severe after the epidemic. The occupancy rate of long-term rental apartments has dropped significantly and the vacancy rate has increased, which has accelerated the exposure of the fragility of the long-term rental apartment operating model.
Yan Yuejin, research director of the E-House Research Institute Think Tank Center, believes that this policy is the first systematic supervision policy in the long-term rental apartment market. The policy is strict and the direction is clear, making it the second important financial-related policy in the real estate market this year on the basis of business loan control.
Strengthen supervision in all aspects
“Since large-scale and institutional leasing was encouraged in 2016, asset-light leasing companies have developed very rapidly, both centralized and decentralized. "There are currently about 200 in Guangzhou." Li Yujia, chief researcher of the Guangdong Provincial Housing Policy Research Center, said that compared with asset-heavy operations, the biggest operational problems of this type of enterprise are asset-light operations, rapid expansion, and prone to some violations. Behaviors such as "black second landlord" (arbitrarily increasing rent, withholding deposits, charging water and electricity bills at will, etc.), as well as long-term rent and short-term payment, creating a fund pool, and deliberately absconding with the money. This is an important background for the promulgation of the "Opinions".
The "Opinions" clarified supervisory measures in seven aspects. Specifically:
First, strengthen industry management. Enterprises engaged in housing leasing operations, as well as natural persons who sublease more than 10 units (rooms) of housing, shall register as market entities in accordance with the law and obtain a business license. Their names and business scope shall include the words "housing leasing".
The second is to standardize housing rental operations. In principle, the period for a single rent collection by a housing leasing enterprise shall not exceed 3 months; except for normal business activities caused by market changes, the rent paid to the housing rights holder shall in principle not be higher than the rent collected from the lessee.
The third is to carry out supervision of housing rental funds. Housing leasing enterprises shall set up a housing leasing fund supervision account in a commercial bank. If a housing leasing enterprise collects rent at a time for more than 3 months, or collects a deposit at a time for more than 1 month, the rent and deposit collected should be included in the supervision account, and the rent should be paid to the housing rights holder through the supervision account and refunded to the lessee. deposit.
Fourth, it is prohibited to obtain housing rental consumer loans. Housing leasing companies are not allowed to carry out financial business in disguised form, are not allowed to embed housing rental consumption loan-related content into housing rental contracts, are not allowed to use the lessee's credit to obtain housing rental consumption loans, and are not allowed to induce tenants to use housing rental consumption in the name of rent installments, rent discounts, etc. loan. Financial institutions shall issue housing leasing consumer loans based on the registered housing leasing contract. The loan amount shall not be higher than the amount of the housing leasing contract, the loan period shall not exceed the period of the housing leasing contract, and the frequency of loan disbursement shall match the frequency of the borrower's rent payment. , loan funds can only be transferred to the borrower's account, and at the same time, the management of the use of loan funds is strengthened to avoid the risk of fund misappropriation.
The fifth is to reasonably regulate housing rent levels. Strengthen rent monitoring in the housing rental market and pay close attention to abnormal increases in regional rents. If rents rise too fast, necessary measures can be taken to stabilize rent levels.
The sixth is to properly resolve housing rental conflicts and disputes, give full play to the role of housing rental-related industry associations, improve the practice rules of the housing rental industry, cooperate with relevant departments to handle housing rental conflicts and disputes, and purify the housing rental market environment. Comprehensive use of multiple mediation mechanisms such as people's mediation, administrative mediation, industry-specific professional mediation, and judicial mediation to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of parties involved in housing rentals.
The seventh is to implement the main responsibility of the city government. The city government assumes the main responsibility for regulating the development of the housing rental market. It must establish a joint supervision mechanism for housing rentals coordinated by multiple departments such as housing and urban-rural construction, development and reform, public security, market supervision, financial supervision, and Internet information, and integrate the supervision work of relevant departments. Incorporate into government performance appraisal system.
There is still great potential for standardizing the development of long-term rental apartments
“From the brutal growth of long-term rental apartments to the delisting of Danke Apartments, the development of the industry has been turbulent, but this does not mean that long-term rental apartments The apartment industry has nowhere to go." Chen Xiao said that with the central government's repeated emphasis on the development of rental housing, there is still room for future development of the industry.
Chen Xiao believes that the model of relying on brutal expansion is no longer suitable for the current market environment, and long-term rental apartment agencies will inevitably move towards refined operations in the future. First, organizations need to continuously improve their operational capabilities, strengthen service levels and product design, improve customer acquisition capabilities, and increase occupancy rates; second, companies must control costs, balance revenue and expenditure, and ensure cash flow security; third Third, strengthen the supervision of long-term rental apartments and include rents and rental loans in supervision accounts. In this regard, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Chongqing and other cities have proposed relevant regulations, requiring the establishment of special supervision accounts to standardize the operating behavior of housing rental companies and curb Enterprises "run away" and other behaviors. In the future, more cities may introduce relevant regulations, and the long-term rental apartment industry will develop in a more refined and standardized direction.
Li Yujia also said that asset-light leasing companies are more likely to engage in capital pooling behavior of "long-term receipt and short-term payment". "With funds under control, the risk of long-term rental apartments is reduced by more than half." In addition, He said that cracking down on "rental loans" has become an important aspect of recent regulatory efforts. While intensifying efforts to "block the crooked door", we should also "open the right door" reasonably and continue to work hard on inclusive housing finance to make up for it. Financial services have shortcomings in this area.