Housing has always been a difficult issue in China, especially in the more populated cities like Shanghai and Beijing, where finding a home has become a conundrum with many faces. However, much of that has changed in 2020.

Due to the current situation in China brought by Covid-19, the long unaltered housing industry has finally changed, it seems, for the better. For the first time in many years, prices for rent havedecreased instead of raising exponentially. This has beencaused by the restricted number of migrant workers from out of town, as well as the financial burden covid-19 has brought to many industries including housing. Experts haveseen a positive correlation between the amount of covid-19 cases and the number of rentaltransactions.

Though bringing dismay to homeowners who are used to collecting rentmonth, this is good news for college graduates who are striving to find a place to live. With this year’s senior students freshly graduated, the peak for the housing industry might be just around the corner. However, economists are stayingpessimistic and saysingthat the demand for housing will not fully recover until after Covid-19 has been completely eradicated.

This is not all bad, though. For the first time in a long time, tenants have more bargaining power when it comes to renting. Simply because of how much rent has decreased in general,the owners are often more willing to create anenticing deal to ensure a transaction. This means that the prices are going to be lower, but also the living environmentincludingdecoration, furnishing and repairs might also be better for the tenants.

Experts still claim that there is nothing to worry about, prosperous cities like Shanghai and Beijing remain attractive to rural citizens, so “it will only be a matter of time before the industry recovers.”