Deepening The Supervision Of Housing Rental: The First Time That Beijing Legislates To Regulate And Control Rent, Standardizes "Rent Loan" And "Formaldehyde House"

"Simultaneous rent and purchase" was proposed in 2014, but the supervision of the leasing industry has been significantly upgraded in the past two years, and the pace is faster and the intensity is gradually deepening.

On August 24, the Beijing Municipal Commission of housing and urban rural development issued the "Beijing housing rental regulations (Draft)" (hereinafter referred to as the "draft") to regulate hot issues such as long-term rental apartments, rent loans and group rental housing. This is also the first local housing rental regulation to be made public after the Ministry of housing and urban rural development made public the housing rental regulations.

In this "opinion draft" of Beijing, the rectification measures for many hot issues are pioneering. For example, the rent control mechanism is implemented for the first time, and the houses with substandard indoor decoration air quality are explicitly stipulated not to be rented for living for the first time.

On September 7 last year, the Ministry of housing and urban rural development issued the housing leasing regulations (Draft), which is the top-level regulatory document of Housing leasing; On April 15, this year, the Ministry of housing and urban rural development and other six departments jointly issued the opinions on strengthening the supervision of light asset housing rental enterprises, clarifying the basic business norms of long-term rental apartment enterprises, and regulating the business models of "high collection and low rent" and "long-term collection and short payment"; On July 23, the Ministry of housing and urban rural development and other eight departments issued the "notice on continuous regulation and regulation of real estate market order", and Housing leasing is also one of the important areas of rectification; Recently, Shenzhen, Foshan and other cities have followed up the standardization of housing rental management.

From the central government to the local government, the supervision of Housing leasing has been deepening. In the face of new formats and models such as long-term rental apartments and rent loans, regulatory measures are also keeping pace with the pace and solving new problems in the rapid development of the leasing industry with new methods.

From the central government to the local government, the supervision of Housing leasing has been deepening, and the regulatory measures are also keeping pace with the pace. Photo by Zheng dikun

Implement rent control mechanism for the first time

Under the policy of continuously increasing the price of the real estate market, a regulatory logic line for the price has gradually become clear. From the initial price limit measures for real estate developers to the introduction of reference prices for second-hand housing transactions in many cities in 2021, the regulation and control has finally penetrated into the most price sensitive rental groups. This "opinion draft" of Beijing plans to establish a rent control mechanism.

The housing rental regulations issued by the Ministry of housing and urban rural development (MOHURD) at that time had proposed that "if the rent rises too fast, necessary measures can be taken to stabilize the rent level". The Beijing version of the regulations explored a series of practical measures.

According to the draft, a rent monitoring and release mechanism should be established. When the housing rent rises rapidly, the competent department can take measures such as limiting the rent increase of housing rental enterprises, investigating and dealing with the rent raising behavior to regulate the housing rental market. Commission or rent guidance price can be implemented when necessary.

Lou Jianbo, director of the real estate law research center of Peking University Law School, said that the main body of the housing rental market is retail investors to retail investors (C2C). The scale of operation of housing rental enterprises (B2C) is relatively small, and the means of rent regulation are less and the pressure is high. The three progressive measures, from limiting rent increase to implementing Commission guided price and rent guiding price, are the first in Beijing, which fully embodies Beijing's determination to regulate the rental market and stabilize the rent level.

"Article 1: to limit the rent increase of housing rental enterprises in" taking over "and investigate and deal with rent hikes, this measure is obviously aimed at the restriction of the major rental enterprises in the year of bidding for houses, so as to prevent these enterprises from amplifying the market fluctuation with the help of capital." According to the analysis of building construction wave, the implementation of the Commission guidance price in Article 2 will help to reduce the actual burden of the lessee, especially the pressure of rent change.

The guiding rent price refers to that the government sets the ceiling or increase of rent in different regions to ensure that the rent is kept within a reasonable range. This area may be some areas where the price rises too fast, or it may be the whole range. Lou Jianbo further pointed out that according to the statistical data, the fluctuation of rent has been small in recent years, and the market has remained stable. In this case, there is no need for government intervention. This clause is mainly aimed at the response measures of "rapid rise in rent", which is a regulatory tool set by law and used to stabilize rent.

Strict control of long-term rental apartments and rent loans

In recent years, a number of long-term rental apartment enterprises represented by eggshell have exposed the operation chaos of long-term rental apartments. Driven by capital, problems such as long-term collection and short-term payment, high-income and low-rent are constantly emerging. They are deeply involved in the formaldehyde house incident, which seriously damages the tenants' economic and even health conditions.

According to the Beijing Municipal Commission of housing and urban rural development, the mismatch between the level and content of the existing legal documents and the actual needs is becoming increasingly prominent. It is urgent to strengthen the top-level design of Housing leasing in Beijing through local legislation, and improve the housing rental management system.

After the Ministry of housing and urban rural development and other six departments issued relevant documents to regulate housing rental enterprises, the "opinion draft" issued by Beijing further reflects the idea of "strict control".

First, the subject has a threshold. It is required that the long-term rental apartment should have the corresponding personnel, capital and management capabilities, and its name and business scope should contain the words "housing lease" for social identification.

Second, the real name should be used. It is stipulated that the employees of Housing leasing enterprises and real estate brokerage agencies shall handle and use the employee information card in accordance with the regulations and work in real name. The housing lease contract and real estate brokerage service contract shall be signed by the employee providing the service and the employee information card number shall be indicated“ Real name employment is convenient to lock in the responsibilities of personnel and establish the foundation for the establishment of credit system in the future. " Lou Jianbo said.

Third, funds should be supervised. It is stipulated that the amount of rent collected by the leasing enterprise from the lessee at a single time shall not exceed the sum of the three-month rent. The excess rent shall be included in the supervision, and the deposit shall not exceed one month's rent, and shall be placed in custody through a third-party special account in accordance with the provisions.

Fourth, there are penalties for violations. The housing leasing enterprises and their employees shall not engage in behaviors that disturb the market order, such as driving up rents and binding consumption; It is not allowed to exaggerate and hype the trend and price of housing rental market; It is not allowed to release, display and promote the housing information without the written entrustment price of the lessor. In case of violation, punishment will be given according to the seriousness of the case.

At the same time, in view of the problem of "rent loan" which has triggered the incidents of protecting the rights of the group of tenants, the draft also gives a comprehensive standard. It is stipulated that the housing leasing enterprises shall not require the lessee to use the housing rent loan by means of concealment, inducement, deception and coercion; It is not allowed to include rent loan related contents in the housing lease contract; When a financial institution issues a rental loan, it shall be based on the recorded housing lease contract. The loan amount shall not be higher than the amount of the housing lease contract. The loan term shall not exceed the term of the housing lease contract. The frequency of the loan shall match the frequency of the borrower's payment of rent. The rent loan can only be transferred to the borrower's account.

In addition, the draft also regulates group rental housing, stipulating that the rental housing should be rented according to the planning and design of suites and rooms, in line with the requirements of per capita use area and the number of people living in each room. It is clear that the living room, kitchen, toilet, balcony, storage room, etc. of the residence can not be rented solely for living.

Lou Jianbo said: "these Regulations are consistent with the residential management regulations announced by Beijing in 2013. Upgrading the governance measures of group rental housing to local regulations and supporting corresponding punishment measures will bring great benefits to the governance work."

"Previously, Beijing has begun to restrict the rent and deposit of long-term apartments. This time, these restrictions and regulations have been incorporated into the legislation to further prevent the disorderly expansion of housing rental enterprises by using the" capital pool. " Analysts close to the Beijing Department of housing and construction told reporters so.