SHANGHAI, Dec. 14 (Xinhua) -- It is expected that 750,000 new rental apartments will be available by 2022 in China's six major cities, according to a report released by property consultancy JLL this week.

The six cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province and Chengdu in Sichuan Province continue to see a growing demand in rental housing sector, Friday's China Daily quoted the report as saying.

As of the first half of 2018, the cities had only 135,000 rental units with a total population of about 88 million people.

Meanwhile, given the relatively higher housing prices in China's first and second-tier cities, renting is a more common option, according to the report.

More than 200 million people rent apartments in China, and the country's rental market is valued at over 1 trillion yuan (about 145 U.S. dollars).

China has released a series of policies to support the rental housing market in terms of land supply, financial support for developers and tax incentives for renters, according to Friday's China Daily.