Photo/Liu Ling (NBD)

Mar. 26 (NBD) -- Chinese homesharing market has reached an inflection point.

In the areas such as Lijiang and Xiamen where homesharing market has been developed, the early entrepreneurs have already started retreating.

Lijiang's house sharing industry reached a peak in 2013. Homes in Old Town of Lijiang and Guhe Ancient Town were fully booked during the high-season.

However, the contradiction between geometric growth of the number of shared homes and the relatively slow increase of tourists resulted in the soaring rent and the vicious competitions.

Chen Ke, a homesharing hotel owner who left Lijiang in 2018, is now working for a home sharing brand in south China's Shenzhen.

The sector embarked on the fast track of growth early since 2007.

Shenzhen's Jiaochangwei welcomed the first batch of homesharing players the next year. Houses owners include surfing and sailboarding enthusiasts from outside and later some freelancers.

The 2011 Summer Universiade held in the city further made shared homes in the area renowned.

The number of houses then grew sharply over the next few years, from two in 2008 and 75 in 2013 to nearly 400 in 2016.

Shared homes in the area received more than 1 million arrivals in 2016, with the board and lodging expense per capita standing at 600- 800 yuan (89.5-119.3 U.S. dollars). As Jiaochangwei's annual tourism income of exceeded 500 million yuan (74.6 million U.S. dollars), it became a highlight of seashore tourism for Shenzhen.

However, behind the boom of the market is heavy loss for house owners.

Yu Yong, manager of a shared house in Jiaochangwei that has been for sale, revealed the occupancy rate was as low as 15 percent to 20 percent in the past three months.

"Other home owners told me the figure was also lackluster last summer. This was largely led by the traffic restrictions during the peak-season," Yu added.

Tailing off tourist volume caused the decrease of operating income and house operators' difficulty in covering rental costs.

"The rent jumped up in 2015 and 2016 when the area received more visitors. Of 400 shared homes here, at least a quarter are being sold," introduced Li Bing, who has been running a shared house for five to six years.

"Some choose to offset the high costs by renting out the first floor," Li noted.

The predicament Jiaochangkou's homesharing industry are encountering mirrors the situation of many house sharing markets across China.

Cai Xiaorong, a former high-end home furnishings designer opening three shared homes within one year in Hangzhou, held that it is common that new entrants fail to survive in the market. The quality of a home is determined by its host. All parts of the house, from the overall design and site selection of the house to hospitality service offered, should be concerned.

Email: zhanglingxiao@nbd.com.cn