URBAN CROWDING SENDS RENTS SKY-HIGH

About 270 million people will lease housing by 2030, analysts say

Zhang Shuoqi, a 31-year-old website editor who rented an apartment in Beijing for two years, recently became an intercity commuter. She now gets up at 5 every morning to commute between Tianjin and Beijing by train.

In addition to a broken toilet and street noise late at night, the final straw that made her decide to move was that the rent on her 7-square-meter room would soon rise by 500 yuan ($73) to 3,350 yuan, more than 40 percent of her monthly salary.