Rentals are a check on home prices

BEIJING - China's move to boost rental housing supply aims to provide a long-term solution for an overheated real estate market, analysts said.

China will launch pilot programs in 13 major cities, including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, to build rental housing on rural land, authorities said last month. Many projects will be finished by the end of 2021, before expansion elsewhere.

Rural collective economic organizations can build and rent housing on rural land themselves or through joint ventures, according to the Ministry of Land and Resources and the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development.