On the occasion of "breakup", long-term rental apartments entered the late stage of reshuffle.

Shenzhen World Bank Group Limited (hereinafter referred to as "World Bank"), 002285. SZ), who had hoped to display his ambition in the field of long-term rental apartments, recently began to change from "lease-operation" (medium asset model) to "entrusted operation" (light asset model).

Long-term rental apartments have entered a new stage. The future housing rental market is considered to be a three-dimensional macro-ecology, which is called "multi-agent supply and multi-channel participation". Long-term rental apartments have experienced a period of scale expansion and financial crisis reshuffle, and then more competition in operation and service, and improving the occupancy rate and floor efficiency is the fundamental.

Shift from medium assets to light assets.

The layout of long-term rental apartments has been more than five years, and World Bank has a new thinking about this business.

World Bank disclosed the Announcement on Disposal of Some Raised Funds Investment Projects and Sale of Equity and Related Transactions of its wholly-owned subsidiaries (hereinafter referred to as the Equity Transfer Agreement), saying that the company intends to sign the Equity Transfer Agreement with its wholly-owned subsidiaries, Shenzhen Shilian Ji Fang Asset Management Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Shilian Ji Fang) and Ningbo Jiangbei Huayan Zhihui Industrial Investment Partnership (Limited Partnership) (hereinafter referred to as Huayan Zhihui).

At the same time, however, within seven working days from the date of signing the aforementioned equity transfer agreement, the World Bank plans to acquire the equity of 43 subsidiaries under the control of the World Bank Ji Fang at a price of 2,654,380,900 yuan.

The core business of Shilian Ji Fang is Shilian Hongpu Apartment.

From the end of 20 15, World Bank began to deploy apartment business in first-and second-tier cities with relatively developed economies and strong rental demand.

By the end of February, 65438+February, 2020, there were about 140 apartment projects managed by the World Bank, of which about 82% were in the medium-asset mode, and the rest were in the light-asset mode except for a few projects.

World Bank said that since the company started the apartment business, the China asset model has helped it achieve rapid scale development, which enabled it to establish a professional service team and a complete operation management system platform within a few years, shaped a good brand reputation and built its competitive advantage in the centralized long-term rental apartment industry.

But at the same time, due to the need to invest a lot of money in the early stage and the long payback period, in the current market environment, it brings certain pressure to the overall operation.

World Bank said that it sold the equity of World Bank Group House and acquired the equity of 43 subsidiaries of World Bank Group House to realize the strategic goal of transforming the apartment management business into a light asset model.

After the completion of asset restructuring, all the businesses held by World Union Ji Fang are medium-sized long-term rental apartment businesses. Of the 43 subsidiaries of World Union Ji Fang, 23 are companies whose projects have been terminated (no projects), 7 have not yet become operating companies, and the remaining 65,438+03 are operating project companies. * * * includes 25 projects, mainly light asset model apartment projects, and the rest are hotel short rent operating projects.

The counterparty of this transaction is Huayan Zhihui, and the actual undertaker is Zhuhai Hengqin Hua Qin Industrial Investment Partnership (Limited Partnership) (hereinafter referred to as "Hua Qin Industry"). World Bank also disclosed the investors of Hua Qin industry, including Nanjing Rubik's Cube Jiahong Apartment Management Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Nanjing Rubik's Cube"), with a subscription ratio of 65,438+08.5%.

It is worth mentioning that the investment funds of Nanjing Rubik's Cube mainly come from its parent company Rubik's Cube (China) Investment Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Rubik's Cube). Rubik's Cube is an apartment service operator with a light asset strategy, which is mainly distributed around CBD and large parks in first-and second-tier cities, similar to the business area distribution of World Union Ji Fang. This also makes some brokers speculate that World Bank will exert its strength in the field of long-term rental apartments with light assets, which is not an illusory capital story.

This is just the tip of the iceberg of the uneven development of long-term rental apartments.

Luo Yi, founder and CEO of Leju Apartment Group, said that the operating mode of Huaxia Assets is greatly affected by the cycle. If the property is rented in the down cycle, the assembly and operation costs can be controlled, and the profit is still promising. But on the other hand, the fault tolerance of the pattern is very low. Generally speaking, light asset institutions are less risky, but the growth of revenue and profits is linear, and they will face financial pressure for a long time before the profits of their main business cannot offset the middle and back office costs.

It is difficult to make a profit.

As early as 20 16, Chen Jinsong put forward the goal of "654.38+10,000 rooms in the year, 500,000-600,000 rooms in 2020 and 1 10,000 rooms in the long term". He believes that when the contracted scale reaches 654.38+million, Hongpu Apartment will be profitable after 2065.438+08.

Looking back on the six years that World Bank settled in long-term rental apartments, the overall operating conditions of World Bank's housing are hardly optimistic. As of September 30, 2020, the net assets of World Union Ji Fang recorded-65.438+0.04 billion yuan; In the first three quarters of 2020, the net loss of Ji Fang was RMB 2,654,380,000.

Although relying on the east wind of the policy, the rental market has broad prospects, but not making money is a common phenomenon in the industry.

At present, the operation modes of apartment business in the market mainly include "holding-operating" (asset-oriented mode), "leasing-operating" (medium-asset mode) and "entrusted operation" (light-asset mode).

According to the "hold-operate" (asset-oriented model) supported by Vanke and Country Garden (02007). HK), Longhu Real Estate (00960. HK), from 20 16, the "Guanyu" team for long-term rental apartments was set up, which once mentioned that it hoped to be the top three in the long-term rental apartment market by 2020, and it is currently in a state of low profit.

Vanke is undoubtedly one of the pioneers of long-term rental apartments. According to Vanke's interim report in 2020, the operating income of the company's rental housing business is 65.438+0.05 billion yuan. The company has opened a total of 65,438+027,300 parking spaces in 33 cities. The overall occupancy rate of opened projects is 88%, and the occupancy rate of mature projects (opening for half a year or more) is 93.7%.

However, Vanke's "Wancun Plan" has suspended the expansion of new housing. Vanke President and CEO Zhu Jiusheng and other senior executives almost admit that it is difficult to make money by renting apartments for a long time.

In the past year, long-term rental apartments operated in the medium-asset or light-asset mode, represented by eggshells and freedom, frequently fell into the quagmire of complaints.

Listed long-term rental apartment brands are all losing money without exception. For example, Zero2IPO Apartment recorded losses of 245 million yuan, 499 million yuan and 498 million yuan respectively in the fiscal year of 20 17-20 19.

The fundamental reason is that the operation mode of high income, low rent, short-term debt and long-term investment needs the help of scale expansion, tenant expansion and rent increase, and it is expected to continue to operate healthily. However, when the rental market goes down, the rent increase is unsustainable, the number of tenants decreases, and the vacancy rate of rooms increases. There will be a game of interests between the platform and the owners and tenants, which will lead to various risks.

Regarding the profitability of long-term rental apartments, Yu Liang, Chairman of Vanke's Board of Directors, said earlier that it seems to partially represent the real situation of the market. "In terms of yield, we are very satisfied with the yield of 1%-2%."

A person in charge of the leasing field who did not want to be named shared with the First Financial Reporter that the return rate of long-term rental apartments is only 1%-3%, and the first-tier cities are generally lower than 2%. At present, the financing interest rate of long-term rental business is generally above 5%, which is an industry that "makes slow money" and the risk is not low.

House price, land price and financing cost are all on the high side, while rental income is low. Under the persistent effect of this contradiction, small long-term rental apartment enterprises have been shuffled out in the past year.

"Under the background of the' three links' red line set by the central bank and the China Banking Regulatory Commission, the proportion of real estate loans from financial institutions and the proportion of personal housing loans, the entire external financing environment is tightening, and housing enterprises and investors with tight funds will only accelerate the withdrawal of long-term rental apartments that make slow money." The above-mentioned person in charge said that a long-term layout with a calm mind is expected to tide over the profit difficulties and further strengthen its strength.

The "abacus" of the strategic layout of housing enterprises

Since it is difficult to make money, why do housing enterprises attach so much importance to long-term rental apartments?

At present, at least one third of the top 30 real estate developers have entered the rental market. Including Country Garden, Vanke, Longhu and Poly Real Estate (600048. SH), Xuhui Holdings (00884. HK), Greentown China (03900. HK), Ocean Shipping Group (03377. HK), Merchants Shekou (00 1979. SZ) and so on. , have accelerated their own layout in this field.

Referring to the reasons why developers favor long-term rental business, the person in charge of the operation of a real estate enterprise in TOP 10 in Shenzhen said that the long-term rental apartment market has a typical "long tail effect", especially in first-tier cities, where long-term rental apartments have a huge customer base and the cash flow of leased properties is very good, which is an ideal carrier for asset securitization. I believe that the development of financial market and rental property market will promote each other. "The financing cost of long-term rental apartments accounts for more than 50% of the total operating costs, while the rent can only cover the operating costs or cannot cover the operating costs at all. The maturity of financial products such as REITs and special corporate bonds for housing leasing will also greatly reduce the development resistance of this market. "

In July 2020, the first long-term rental apartment (Chengshousi Community) on the national collective leased land built and operated by Beijing Vanke was put on the market. This is also the epitome of Vanke's landing in the ToG field of long-term rental apartments.

At the 2020 interim results meeting, Zhu Xu, secretary of Vanke's board of directors, said, "At present, two collective rental housing projects have been opened in Beijing, and joint ventures have been established with talent housing groups in Shenzhen and Jinan to build collective rental housing, and I hope to make greater contributions in the future."

From ToC, ToB to ToG, the business boundary of long-term rental apartments has been expanding, and some enterprises that continue to lay out this field have also ushered in the first turning point of development.

Shao, CEO of Longhu Group, bluntly expressed confidence in the long-term rental apartment business at the 2020 interim results meeting. It has a very large user base, and the number of users aged 265,438+0-35 is very large. In addition, the overall capital cost is relatively low. This year, 654.38 million stores have been opened, and the income of 2 billion should be no problem.

He also pointed out that the business began to make a slight profit in 2020, which is a start. In the future, the company will further optimize the ratio of heavy assets to light assets according to the grasp of the whole opportunity. At the same time, it is mentioned that Guanyu has reached a relatively stable period, and its gross profit margin is also 32% to 35%. Now the occupancy rate has reached 88.6% after half a year of opening, and the whole progress is still very benign.

Vanke recently responded to investors on the interactive platform that long-term rental of apartments is an important channel to solve the housing problem, and the company is optimistic about the long-term future of its business. Vanke believes that the market demand for centralized apartments is large, which is in line with the policy direction of both rent and purchase. The company will continue to unswervingly push forward this business.

Luo Yi also told the First Financial Reporter that the housing leasing industry has entered the social security category in the "14 th Five-Year Plan" and is an important field in the national top-level design. And in first-tier and "quasi-first-tier" cities, the demand for long-term rental is strong and sustainable, but there will be a new round of adjustment of supply channels and participants. "In the future, the subjects participating in long-term rental will be more diverse, and the way of participation will also be combined with the company's own capabilities and genes. Some will cut in from the asset side, and some will cut in from the operation server side. Of course, no matter what identity, it will eventually fall into operation. Strong, systematic and iterative operational capabilities will be even scarcer in the industry in the future. "