RENTS of mid-range apartments in Luohu, Futian and Nanshan districts have been steadily increasing this year, yesterday’s Southern Metropolis Daily reported.

An investigation conducted by the newspaper showed that rents of mid-range apartments in the Jingtian and Gangxia areas in Futian District have risen by 20 to 40 percent since the start of this year. The rent of an 80-square-meter apartment in Xiangmi’ercun, a residential compound in Jingtian, is now 3,000 yuan (US$395), an increase of 500 yuan over the start of the year.

“Unlike apartments in urban villages, the apartments located in some mid-range housing estates have found favor with white-collar workers for being able to offer good property management, better auxiliary facilities and nice environment,” said Cao Hong, a branch manager with the real estate agency Centaline.

Faced with high property prices, an increasing number of white-collar workers with a monthly salary of between 4,000 yuan and 8,000 yuan have chosen to adopt a wait-and-see attitude to purchasing an apartment, and are renting instead.

Industry experts believe the upward trend of rents is expected to continue into next year, though they admitted that rents inside the special economic zone (SEZ) would eventually drop with the opening of Metro lines extending to areas outside the SEZ in the future.

(Eunice Kang)