Ningchao Mingshi Apartment Block is located near Hangzhou East Railway Station in Hangzhou's Shangcheng district. [Photo/ori.hangzhou.com.cn]

Ningchao Mingshi Apartment Block, which is located near Hangzhou East Railway Station in Hangzhou's Shangcheng district, recently opened and is set to accommodate 1,469 tenants who have been classified by the city as high-profile talents.  

It is the first not-for-sale talent apartment block ever built in Zhejiang province.

The provincial capital of Hangzhou has classified high-profile talents into five grades, from A to E. A doctorate degree holder is viewed at minimum as an E-grade talent.

Only talents possessing no residence in Hangzhou or who have transferred the possession of all their residences in the city at least two years ago are eligible to rent an apartment in the new block.

A- and B-grade talents are fully exempt from rent. The rent for C- and D-grade talents is only 20 percent of the market price, while the rent for E-grade talents is 40 percent of the market price.

For example, the monthly rental fee for a 45-square-meter apartment, valued at 2,800 yuan ($434.56) in the market, is merely around 1,100 yuan for E-grade talents and 500 yuan for C- and D-grade talents.

As for the term of tenancy, talents at or above D-grade are allowed to live in the rented apartment until they purchase their own residence. E-grade talents can stay in the apartment for up to six years.

In October 2017, Hangzhou CBD Investment Group purchased the residential-use land for the block due to its excellent location and traffic conditions. It is conveniently located close to schools, hospitals, and shopping malls. The completed block is equipped with state-of-the-art public facilities and offers apartments with one, two, or three bedrooms.

Hangzhou has so far identified more than 40,000 high-profile talents. It has designated over 60 plots of residential-use land to be the sites of not-for-sale talent apartments, with the number of apartments expected to total 52,000 in the near future.

The interior of a talent apartment. [Photo/ori.hangzhou.com.cn]

 The interior of an indoor stadium in the apartment block. [Photo/ori.hangzhou.com.cn]