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1001 Chinese Tales: High rent, housing prices killing will of ‘ant tribe’ (2)

By Yu Jincui (Global Times)

10:24, July 20, 2013

I can only assume that they, too, dream of a spacious living room with comfortable couches and plush cushions. But the high costs of renting in the city combined with miserable salaries make for little other choice.

One of the 25 tenants told a local newspaper that he earned 3,000 yuan per month, a meager salary that makes it next to impossible for him to afford anything else but the squalor he lives in.

Restrictions on home renovations that divide living quarters into confined areas of less than 10 square meters have been hard to enforce as the illegal subdivisions continue to spring up across the city like wild mushrooms.

Despite police crackdowns in recent years on the illegal rentals, which put an added stress on fire hazards as well as public services in the community, where there is demand, there is supply.

Some people worry that the generation of those born after 1980, a significant share of the bunk bed tenants, will gradually lose their spirit in the face of mounting prices.

Others are sad for the 25 renters, and quite possibly, the tens of thousands of peers like them, who will spend their youth on a narrow bed that will eat away at their passion for a better life if they fail to succeed first.

A failure on the part of the government to adequately regulate the increasingly hot rental market has become an urgent point of discussion among renters, who argue that having an affordable place to stay is necessary to their survival in the city.

Overly high prices also bring more risks of conflict, which is not what young people need today.

Let me end with the joke by saying, "Let the young couple hold on to the hope of owning a home one day." And help them get on their way by reducing their rent.

【1】 【2】



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