Why Tencent and Sequoia Are Pouring Millions Into China's Rental Space

  • Tencent, Sequoia, Warburg Pincus pour money into rental apps
  • You+, Ziroom use data, technology to uproot rental management
A Ziroom apartment in Nanjing, China.Source: Ziroom
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In its attempt to cool what are among the fastest-rising property prices in the world, China is pushing its people to rent instead of buy. That’s prompting venture capitalists to pour millions into an old-fashioned sector that’s being uprooted by technology: rental management.

Tencent Holdings Ltd., Warburg Pincus and Sequoia Capital are among the VCs betting on startups to win a slice of the market expected to grow to 4.2 trillion yuan ($664 billion) by 2030, according to estimates from Orient Securities Co. That’s almost half of total home sales in 2017.