(Yicai Global) Nov. 17 -- China is stepping up its efforts to encourage the development of the rental housing market. Two new state-owned rental housing management enterprises have been inaugurated in Guangzhou in southeastern China's Guangdong province yesterday, online media outlet ycwb.com reported.

The newly-inaugurated Guangzhou Pearl River Rental Housing Development Investment Co. and the Guangzhou Yuexiu Rental Housing Development Investment Co. were invested and set up by the Guangzhou municipal government's Guangzhou Pearl River Enterprises Group and Yuexiu Property Holdings Co., respectively.

At the inauguration ceremony of the new companies, Guangzhou Housing and Urban-Rural Development Committee also entered into the letters of intent on strategic cooperation with China Construction Bank [SHA:601939] and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China [SHA:601398] (ICBC), respectively, under which the latter will finance the development of Guangzhou's rental housing industry with no less than CNY1 trillion (USD150 billion) in the next five years.

The major cities in China have recently adopted diversified industrial policies in succession, with a view to encouraging the development of local rental housing market. Beijing issued a policy document, saying it will allocate 1,000- hectare land under rural collective ownership for building rental houses in the next five years.