Rent control in China from the 50s to the 90s kept rent so low that it did not cover maintenance nor the building of new homes. A housing shortage resulted.

The government started to increase rents in the 1990s.

Another reform measure made the implicit subsidies (through low rents) explicit. Rents were raised significantly and the subsidies became part of the regular income. In the pilot city of Yantai, monthly rent in 1987 was raised from 0.13 to 1.28 yuan per square meter, with a comparable increase of 23.5 percent of basic salary in the form of vouchers. If the value of the voucher was less than the rent, the household had to make up the difference; if it was more, the household could deposit the balance in an interest-bearing account and use it to pay for rent, housing construction and repairs, or the purchase of dwelling units (Fong, 1988b; Gu, 1988; Lim and Lee, 1993)

In 1998 the government ended the rationing of homes and people would now buy homes on the free market. There are public and private rentals.

Generally, one can buy a leasehold, not a property. This includes a right to use, which may also include a right to generate income from renting. Unlike in systems where you own the land, it’s not something that gains value just by existing, and you can’t park wealth in it to transfer on to future generations. It only has value if someone wants to and can live there, and it must be maintained.

(I used this as my main source: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/227460868_Rent_Control_And_Its_Reform_In_China )