THE average floor space of Shenzhen rental apartments has been gradually shrinking, according to a statistical analysis by Leyoujia.com, a Shenzhen-based real estate service provider, the Shenzhen Evening News reported. On the basis of rental transactions data from between 2013 and the end of August this year, the analysis found that the average floor space of Shenzhen rental apartments has decreased by 6.5 square meters, from 74.3 square meters five years ago to the current 67.8 square meters. The main reason behind this is the higher rent, which causes tenants to choose smaller rental homes. From 2013 to present, Shenzhen’s average rental price has increased by 43 percent, and the rental price for a housing unit has risen from 3,000 yuan (US$458) to over 4000. The monitoring data provided by Leyoujia.com showed that compared with the city’s firsthand residential housing prices for the year, the price-to-rent ratio has changed from 1:491 to 1:866. In other words, if a person buys an apartment in Shenzhen now, it will take 72 years to recover the purchase price through rental income. From average floor space of rental units to the space distribution, Shenzhen’s rental apartments are also showing signs of going “small.” On the one hand, the rising rent intimidates tenants, who then turn to compact, practical and cost-effective housing. On the other hand, under the guidance of the rental market, investment-oriented homebuyers also prefer small and low-priced apartments, which increases the supply of such rentals in the market. The relation between rental prices in and out of the former special economic zone have also become significantly different in recent years, as the rents in the popular areas in the former special economic zone are generally higher than in other areas. Meanwhile, most of the landlords in the popular areas seem to ramp up the rent by 200 or 300 yuan per month every year, which further unnerves tenants. According to statistics provided by classified information websites, Ganji.com and 58.com, the average rent in Jingtian was 68 yuan per square meter in 2014, and the average rent for a housing unit was 4,803 yuan. However, these two categories increased to 83 yuan and 5,398 yuan in August. The average age of tenants is also becoming younger in Shenzhen, according to Leyoujia.com and Anjuke.com., which have analyzed the average age and changes in age intervals over the past five years in the city. The average age of tenants in Shenzhen was 35 in 2013 and 39 in 2014. Since then, the age has dropped every year and reached 36 in 2017. In 2014, tenants aged between 20 and 30 accounted for 17.37 percent of all the tenants in the city, and grew year by year to 28.44 percent in 2017. (Zhang Yu)