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June 30, 2015

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Home » City specials » Hangzhou

Group rentals creating safety, fire concerns

By Wu Huixin | June 30, 2015, Tuesday | Print Edition

THE death of four people in an apartment fire in Binjiang District earlier this month has refocused public attention on landlords who subdivide their properties and cram in multiple tenants.

The cause of the fire, which also injured four of the 20 tenants, remains under investigation.

As housing costs in Hangzhou rise, many migrant workers and students without much money are forced to live in crowded, subdivided apartments. Their living conditions have caused them to be called the “ant tribe.”

“Downtown rents are sky high,” said new graduate Lily Wen, who has been living in a subdivided apartment near Zhejiang Science and Technology University in Xiasha. “As a college graduate, I had no choice.”

The subdivided apartments operate in a gray area of the law.

“Groups rental cannot be completely eradicated,” an officer from the Xiasha Chaowen police station told the media. “What we need is clear government regulation and the cooperation of every official department.”

The Xiasha and Binjiang areas are symptomatic of rental conditions for the low-income. Since the two areas were incorporated into Hangzhou’s high-tech and higher-education zones in the last 10 years, they have attracted streams of migrant workers and students.

Trying to cash in on the trend, landlords buy an apartment and then subdivide it into small rooms. They can make a profit of up to 800 yuan (US$127) a month on each rental. Prices for the rooms go up 10 to 15 percent a year.

To save money, landlords often extend electrical wiring by themselves.

Inside these apartments are packed bunk beds and tangles of unsafe wiring. The units are unsanitary and often have fire hazards. Neighbors continually complain about them to police.

The 130-square-meter apartment where Wen is living is subdivided into five rooms, each with an average area of 15 square meters. She and another four tenants share a kitchen, bathroom and balcony.

It’s not what Wen would call ideal living.

“The other tenants in the apartment often return in the early morning hours and make a lot of noise that wakes me up,” she said. “And the bathroom is dirty and really disgusting.”

In the fatal fire earlier this month, tenants were crammed into a three-story apartment that had been subdivided into more than 20 rooms, each with monthly rents of 250 yuan to 800 yuan.

Three years ago, the Dongfanghong Residential Community Committee sued a group rental landlord for creating a hazardous living environment, the first suit of its kind in Hangzhou. But the Jianggan District Court rejected the suit, ruling there is no law banning group rentals.

However, there are laws related to fire and other safety hazards. To date, the city has inspected 64,033 apartments, and more than 40 landlords have been detained on charges of providing electricity and gas illegally.

Suburbs like Xiasha and Binjiang aren’t the only areas where group rentals operate. Downtown areas are not immune.

One case in point is the Xintang Jiayuan Residential Community. It was created as a resettlement site for farmers from Pengbu Village, who were displaced by construction of the Hangzhou East Railway Station. Each farm family was allocated at least two apartments. Many chose to turn the extra apartment into a rental fetching between 800 yuan and 2,500 yuan a month, depending on size.

“I subdivided my apartment into two small flats, each with a bathroom,” said Sheng Chunxian, who rents out the units for 2,000 yuan a month. “The more rooms created, the dirtier the apartment would be. I don’t want my apartment to be ruined by tenants,”

However, not all landlords care as much as Sheng.

Shanghai Daily visited one subdivided apartment where the smallest room for rent was only 10 square meters. It was hardly large enough to accommodate a bed and a wardrobe.

“I don’t see anything wrong with providing cheap and convenient quarters for poor people in this city, where rent is sky high,” said a landlord surnamed Wang, who refused to give his full name. “It’s just normal supply and demand.”

Police said such poor, crowded living conditions are a recipe for criminal activity.

At the beginning of this year, several residents at one subdivided apartment were robbed at knifepoint in an elevator. The perpetrator was later found to be one of the tenants living at the site.

At the Kaixuan Community alongside the Tiesha River, 90 percent of residents are tenants drawn by low rents and convenient public transport. One of the tenants lives in a converted attic at the site.

“In summer, the attic is scorching,” said Wang Li, who has lived there with her husband and son for five years.

The attic also suffers from water leakage on rainy days because of cracks in the roof. Still, the family said it has little choice.

“We have to live here because the rent is low,” Wang said.

Municipal authorities are trying to build new public housing to ease the rental crunch for those on low incomes. Flats like the new 13-unit Zhiyingmajing Lane project have better sanitation, facilities and security. Police said they have received no complaints from the site since it opened in March.

Another 800 government-built apartments are under construction in Shangcheng District.

Hangzhou


 

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