During the reign of Emperor Huizong of Song, housing prices in Bianliang had skyrocketed. An ordinary worker in Bianliang could earn 100 wen a day, which would be 3-4 guan a month.

But at that time, the most ordinary house in the outer city of Bianliang was worth 3,000 to 4,000 guan, and the more expensive ones were 8,000 to 9,000 guan. A slightly higher-end house would cost tens of thousands of guan, and the luxury houses in the inner city were even more expensive, with some costing hundreds of thousands or even millions of guan.

Su Shi sold many of his paintings and calligraphy to buy a house, and even borrowed money from his brother to barely scrape together the funds. His brother, Su Zhe, became prime minister and continued to rent a house until he was seventy years old.

It is obvious that even the most ordinary and outlying houses would require ordinary people to go without food and drink for hundreds of years to buy them.

This gave rise to a booming rental business.

The house pawning system originated from this. The full house rental business in South Korea in later generations seemed to be a world first, but in fact it had already appeared in the Song Dynasty.

Zhao Jun said, "The situation in the Song Dynasty is somewhat similar to that in South Korea. Both are concentrated in Bianliang, where major industries and commerce are concentrated. The economy is prosperous, and a large number of people have gathered, making it difficult to rent a house."

"That's right. Nowadays, many officials live in the outer city, or even rent houses outside the city. It's okay if they don't have to attend court, but it's very difficult for them to attend court."

Li Di said something.

Zhao Jun thought for a moment and said, "Bianliang will definitely need to be replanned in the future. Once the military is built, the city walls will have hammers to use, and a portion can be left as a tourist attraction. Even if it's torn down and rebuilt, that's something we can leave for later. We can't run before we've learned to walk. Let's build some low-rent housing first."

“What is low-rent housing?”

"It's the public house managed by our store's housing affairs department."

"Build more public housing? But where is the land for public housing in the city?"

"Then build it outside the city."

Zhao Jun said, "Starting next year, we'll relocate all government-built workshops outside the city. We'll then use low-cost land rents to attract private workshops outside the city, creating a fringe area between urban and rural areas. This will encourage a population flow out of the city and alleviate rental pressure within the city."

Building a country is not an easy task, even if one has a high-level plan and can copy and imitate others for future development. However, it is an ancient society after all, and its level of development and system are still different from those of later generations.

Therefore, every step of construction must be done with caution and step by step, and cannot be accomplished overnight.

The current situation is that problems can only be solved if they are discovered. Even if Zhao Jun is so far ahead of his time, he cannot predict problems in advance and solve them at the source.

Or he can predict problems, but there are too many problems. He is a human, not AI, and it is impossible for him to do everything in advance.

Therefore, we can only take it step by step.

Jiang Tang worriedly said, "The construction outside the city is very poor, and the various facilities are not up to par. If we rashly move all the workshops there, will it cause any problems?"

"No."

Zhao Jun smiled and said, "What's the workshop's biggest need? Transportation. The Bian Canal isn't just in the city. Outside the west, east, and south cities, there are rivers for transportation. The workshop manufactures its goods, and shipping them via the rivers is their biggest need. The rest of the supporting facilities are needed for the workshop. Wherever the workshop goes, they will naturally follow."

"I see."

Jiang Tang agreed. What a workshop needs for manufacturing is raw materials and finished goods for sale. Both of these require transportation. As long as it is near the canal, wouldn't both be solved?

Zhao Jun pondered again, "This housing mortgage system is just like renting out all the houses. When housing prices are constantly rising, this problem isn't obvious and won't cause any trouble for the people. But once housing prices fall, there will be a crash like in South Korea, and that will cause huge troubles down the road."

"Hanlong means to rectify it now?"

Yan Shu hurriedly asked with concern. He owned a lot of real estate. Historical records showed that he even owned many stores, and most of them were rented out in this way. If he had to make any rectifications, he would suffer a huge loss.

Zhao Jun thought for a moment and said, "Let's not make any changes for now. Judging from the current situation, Bianliang's housing prices are expected to continue rising for another hundred years, and a large-scale crash is unlikely. But we can't leave this up to future generations. While the law doesn't prohibit pawning, we must curb it through policy."

“How to curb it?”

Everyone was also very concerned. These prime ministers were all rich or noble. Except for a few like Jiang Tang, which one of them didn't have a few extra houses?

"First, let's establish family housing for each department."

Zhao Jun said, "Officials should stop renting houses. Those who can afford it should buy their own, and those who can't should live in family housing. Secondly, as mentioned earlier, we should relocate the population out of the city to curb housing prices. Next, we should expand urbanization and incorporate Yuetai and Qingcheng into Kaifeng Prefecture. Finally, we should continue to increase the construction of low-rent housing. After several rounds, housing prices will be stabilized, and the housing leasing system will naturally be curbed."

As the population flows out of the city, housing prices will fall. With more houses available for rent and more low-rent housing, rents will naturally fall. When rents and housing prices fall, the house-mortgage system will become less cost-effective, and fewer and fewer people will choose this system, so the risks will certainly not be buried in the future.

"Um."

No one said anything after hearing this.

Although doing so will inevitably harm their own interests, this is a policy that is beneficial to the country's development after all. Who would dare to obstruct it?

They immediately began to discuss the details for a while.

At the end of the morning, just before lunch, Fan Zhongyan came in hurriedly and said, "Something big has happened."