Meadin Research: August 2026 Housing Rental Industry Development Report

Key points

• August saw concentrated delivery of subsidised rental housing with state capital continuing to dominate; projects included Xiamen Meifeng Community (first batch of 620 units), Kunming Wuhua Yuantou Jinding Youth Apartment (239 units) and TEDA Anju Haoyu Tianbin branch (319 units).
• The CSRC issued an opinion supporting REIT issuance for eligible rental housing and allowing rental housing projects to be injected into listed REITs as expansion assets.
• Shanghai is advancing purchases and renovation of second-hand homes in central districts for rental; Chengdu is exploring market-entity purchases of second-hand homes for subsidised rental housing and is the first to include existing commercial-office stock in conversion.
• CCB Housing Rental's hold-type real estate ABS (tranches 2 to N) expansion was approved, with a planned total issuance of RMB 5 billion managed by CICC, currently in 'accepted' status.
• Global rents diverged: the U.S. median rent was $1,390, up 0.1% month on month and a seventh straight monthly rise; Canada fell to C$2,035 for a 23rd consecutive monthly decline; the UK averaged £1,382, up 4.1% year on year; Tokyo's 23 wards reached ¥263,148, up 10.9% year on year.
• In China, Beijing and Shanghai ordinary apartment rents stayed high at RMB 98.83 and RMB 94.64 per square metre per month respectively; Guangzhou, Hangzhou and Nanjing formed a second tier at RMB 55-60.
• The top-50 brand communication index averages for state-owned and private rental housing brands were 158.1 and 150.1 respectively, broadly level at the top with differences mainly in the mid and lower tiers.
• The blue-collar apartment brand index led with an 8.3% month-on-month rise, linked to concentrated release of industrial-worker rental demand during the August hiring peak.