On November 16, 2017, the Banking Department of ICBC Guangdong Branch  and the Guangzhou Housing and Urban-Rural Construction Committee (“GHURCC”) entered into the Strategic Cooperation Agreement under which the Bank would provide credit facility of RMB500 billion to participants of Guangzhou’s rental housing market. Moreover, the Banking Department also signed the Strategic Cooperation Agreement with Yuexiu Group and Guangzhou Pearl River Enterprises Group Ltd. in a bid to jointly facilitate the development of the city’s rental housing market, to meet consumer needs at multiple levels, and to help renters improve their living quality.

Pursuant to the agreements, in addition to providing the above mentioned funding support, the Banking Department will actively explore the rental finance models with the purpose of building a modern leasing industry economy in Guangzhou, providing all-round services to renters and local socioeconomic development, and promoting the scaled, intensive and specialized development of the local rental housing market. The Banking Department will: firstly, support the investment, building and operation management of state-owned rental platforms; work with GHURCC to set up a “special rental housing fund” through which to provide a series of financial services to members of the rental housing association, ranging from development and construction to investment incubation, business operation and exit mechanism; support the building of a rental housing information service platform in Guangzhou, and provide relevant financial services to house suppliers, agencies, individual house owners and renters; secondly, cooperate with the two said companies to develop a “finance + real estate + operation” cooperation model, and provide a series of financial services to them ranging from development and building to project operation, asset revitalization and exit mechanism; offer one-stop inclusive financial services to lessors and renters including rent collection and payment, financing service and wealth management, and help local residents fulfill the goal of “Better House, Better Life”; thirdly, launch the “e-rental loan” and other innovative financial products designed to pay rents, and meet renters’ funding need for different types of houses such as government-funded housing and commodity housing so that they can better arrange for housing and living expenditures.