Better housing and yards improve living conditions

Affordable and better living for Shanghai’s key public service sector workers is being promoted through government subsidized rental housing projects citywide, Shanghai Daily reporter learnt during the Shanghai Municipal People’s Government open month in August.

A pilot yard landscape and economy project in Wangnibang Village in the northern tip of Minhang District is also benefiting its rural residents in a spiritually and economically improving way.

Xiao Shu, born in 1998, from Anqing City in the east Anhui Province, is a beneficiary of the New Era Urban Builder and Constructor Home project.

This is a rental housing guarantee space citywide tailored for accommodating workers for the city’s key public service sectors, including logistics and delivery, security, sanitation, greenery, property management, catering, rail transit, housekeeping and health care.

The young man works in the property management service sector and used to rent a subleased single-bedroom apartment that cost about 3,000 yuan (US$423) a month including water and electricity charges.

“Now my company pays for my occupancy of a bed in a six-person dormitory in Pudong New Area at 550 yuan to 600 yuan monthly, from which I only have to assume the cost of 200 or 300 yuan," Shu said. “I can save more and the facilities are good.”

He also hopes he can bring his wife to Shanghai after he becomes more experienced professionally and will apply for a family suite.

“We have offered 300 suites, or 1,188 beds for this welfare rental housing project, out of our total 1,435 suites,” said Yao Yong, vice manager of the Habourcity Group.

The state-owned Habourcity Group, the operator of the New Era Urban Builder and Constructor Home at 1760 Kangqiao Road in Pudong New Area, also runs the rest of regular talent apartments and office rental facilities in the neighborhood.

The project receives government subsidies as well as support from regular rental earnings from the company.

“We rent our beds and suites to the employer companies as appliers first," Yao said. "They’re mostly private enterprises. Then the companies help their individuals to apply. The operation is stable and the tenant feedback is satisfying.

“The occupancy rate in our branch is about 85 percent,” he added.

The total of 1,188 beds falls into different room types, including six-bed dorm that costs 550-600 yuan for each bed monthly, four-bed dorm that costs 400-550 yuan for each bed monthly, standard double-bed dorm that charges 400-450 yuan for each bed monthly, two-loft-bed-with-desk dorm that costs about 800 yuan for each bed monthly, and the family suite that collects a fee at 1,600 yuan monthly.

Their floor area covers about 30 square meters for a unit more or less depending on dwellers’ number.

Small as they are, the dorms are well equipped with kitchen, toilet, furniture and home appliances equipment such as electromagnetic oven, refrigerator, range hood, washing machine, air-conditioner, cabinets, chairs, tables, shower and water heater.

“We sourced 11,000 beds for the New Era Urban Builder and Constructor Home project in 2023 for our key public service sectors workers," said Yao Wenjiang, deputy chief of the housing supply and support department of Shanghai Housing Administration Bureau.

"Our quota for 2024 is 30,000 beds in minimum. Up till now, we have sourced 21,100 beds and the quota is estimated to be reached by the end of October.”

Wangnibang Village is situated in the east of Huacao Town in the northern tip of Minhang District.

Flights taking off or returning to the city’s Hongqiao International Airport are frequently seen. The Shanghai-Nanjing intercity railway and Shanghai-Beijing High Speed Railway run south-north across the village.

The village is a typical urban-rural fringe, with a ratio of out-of-town tenants against local residents at about 11:1.

It used to be demographically complex, with a high resident mobility.

Yet in 2023 the village was selected among the third batch of China’s national rural governance model village, with its village appearance morphing into a rural garden thanks to its “Beautiful Yard” campaign.

In the same year its “Village Collective Management and Country House Butler” tenant management case was selected as Shanghai’s better community pioneering project.

Zhao Chunhong, a Wangnibang resident, is now proud of her home yard that has won a model beautiful yard laurel in the village.

Plants hang on the wall of her yard in a visually appealing way. Inside, celosia, bougainvillea and Chinese ixora are in full bloom. The vines of grapes cluster around a trellis and dozens of carps swim vigorously in a fish tank.

“My father-in-law was a horticultural enthusiast," said Zhao. "He took care of the plants. After he passed away, I play the role of the gardener in the household."

The “Beautiful Yard” campaign has been a district-level measure in Minhang to promote the national rural prosperity strategy.

It calls on the villagers to make use of their private plots and residential lands to cultivate mini-gardens, orchards and vegetable gardens.

“The campaign spiritually improves the lifestyles of our residents. It also helps with removing unauthorized constructions, which were not rare in our village in the past and posed high life and safety risks,” said Jin Aifang, Party secretary of Wangnibang Village.

Chen Zhengguo, 65, is a Wangnibang resident as well as a landlord.

His multi-storied country house, renovated in 2020, has 12 standard units for rental.

He has raised the appearance of his rental facilities under the campaign and won applauds from his tenants.

Outstanding gardeners are awarded one-star, two-star and model laurels with both honors and financial encouragement. The requirements range from basics of no unauthorized constructions, standard livestock and poultry raising, safe electricity use, good garbage sorting performance, to yard aesthetics and gardening highlights.

So far 109 households in the village have been engaged in the “Beautiful Yard” campaign. Among them 97 have won approvals.

“The ‘Beautiful Yard’ campaign is a district general endeavor in Minhang,” said Zeng Yanbo, head of the rural development department of Minhang Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee.

"It has covered 7,228 households since the project was started in 2021. The beautiful yards have not only improved the villages’ appearance and neighborhood friendships, some of them also have created economic benefits. Such as in Huidong Village in southeast Minhang, its ‘gourd economy’ in yards has helped some of its villagers increase their annual income by 8,000 yuan per household."

The district has invited special teams from East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai Shangfang Horticulture Co and its agricultural technology center to offer feasible yard designs for the residents in Wangnibang.

“In the next step we will try to encourage social organizations, college students and art enthusiasts to join in and help with the ‘Beautiful Yard’ endeavor,” Zeng added.