国内英语新闻:Sandwiched white-collar Chinese fret over soaring rents

In 2008, he was forced to move out of an apartment because the landlord wanted to increase the rent as the market price rose around the community.

"Mostly the landlord has the say. Contracts usually do not mean anything. If you do not agree with a rental increase, you have to move out," Lu said.

"The problem is, no matter how much the rent is, there will be people willing to pay," Lu said. "That's why housing rents keeps soaring."

According to Homelink, a leading real estate brokerage agency in Beijing, the average monthly rent stood at 3,182 yuan (474 dollars) in December last year.

Lu had thought of settling down but housing prices were beyond what he could afford.

The average price for a new apartment in Beijing reached 20,000 yuan (2,985 U.S. dollars) per square meter, and for a second-hand apartment stood at 16,000 yuan per square meter.

Liu Qingzhu suggested that the government should pay more attention to this group of young people.

"New graduates especially need help. The government can provide some preferential housing policies to help them adapt to the first few years of work," he said.

For example, he said, the government can open some low-rent houses to them or specially arrange for youth apartments.

"The proper rent may be around 500 yuan for one room or even less," he said. "After working for several years with a better financial situation, they can move on to buy an apartment or rent a better one."

In fact, the Chinese government has started to build more low-rent housing projects and public rental projects.

Last year, the country started to build 5.9 million government-subsidized apartments, and that number will reach 10 million in 2011, said Jiang Weixin, minister of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, at a meeting last month.

Also, a new regulation on leasing commercial property, to take effect in February, forbids landlords from increasing rent unilaterally during the lease.