STATISTICS from Centaline Property showed that the average rent of apartments in Shenzhen was 68 yuan (US$9.86) per square meter per month last month, marking a year-on-year decline of 3 percent, the Shenzhen Economic Daily reported yesterday.

    “The monthly rent of my apartment is 4,400 yuan, and the realty agency said the rent had been lowered a little bit,” said a tenant, surnamed Xie, who lives in a rented apartment in Jingtian area.

    According to data from Centaline Property and anjuke.com, the monthly rent of apartments in a residential estate in Nanshan District dropped from 95 yuan to 85 yuan per square meter over the past year, and the monthly rent in another estate in OCT area dropped by 8 percent compared with a year ago to 160 yuan per square meter.

    The average rent of apartments in Shenzhen had been climbing for years but started declining in February last year. The downward trend didn’t stop until July last year as the average rent bounced back a little bit, but it has continued to decrease since August.

    One of the main reasons for the decline in rents is the popularity of long-term rental apartments in Shenzhen. There are nearly 100 operators of long-term rental apartments in Shenzhen, including some nationwide brands, local brands and property developers such as Vanke and Gemdale, according to the report.

    Many long-term rental apartments are equipped with cinemas, coffee shops, book bars, gyms and dining areas, which enable tenants to make social contact in a low-cost and convenient way.

    Xiao Xiaoping, a manager with Homelink Real Estate, said that the rapid growth of long-term rental apartments has developed a strong rival to the traditional rental housing market, adding to the continuous slump of rent prices in Shenzhen. (Zhang Yang)