China News Service, Beijing, January 29 (Hu Shujuan) An announcement letter forced Lin Xiao (pseudonym) to move urgently.
Previously, Lin Xiao lived in the Shanghai Jinyu Road Community of Rubik's Cube Apartment. An announcement letter posted by the property owner of the community stated that the lessee, Rubik's Cube Apartment, had been in serious breach of contract for a long time. The company had terminated the lease contract with it in accordance with the law and officially took back the property.
"The property owner has not forced the tenant to move out, but the deposit we paid before is likely to be wasted." Lin Xiao said that the previously signed lease contract would not expire until around the end of February. Considering the subsequent risks, she decided to change the house directly.
China News Network’s investigation revealed that many stores of Rubik’s Apartment in Shanghai, Hangzhou, Shenzhen and other places have stopped operating. Some tenants’ deposit and rent refunds applied for after the incident have not been received, and the property owners are also owed rent. At the same time, the Rubik's Cube Apartment mini program is promoting the "2026 Bargain House Hunting Season" event, sending limited flash sale coupons to offset 3,000 yuan in rent.
However, as concerns about whether the Rubik's Cube apartment can still be rented continue to spread, this offer has been greatly discounted in the minds of tenants.
Rubik's Cube Apartment. Photo provided by interviewee
The tenant’s deposit and the owner’s rent for several months are in arrears.
In February last year, Lin Xiao signed an "Apartment Use Contract" with Shanghai Shengmu Asset Management Co., Ltd. (one of the affiliated companies of the "Magic Cube Apartment" brand). The rent is about 2,400 yuan/month, the service fee is 340 yuan/month, and a deposit of one and three is required. "I rented it because I was looking for the 'Rubik's Cube Apartment', and chain brands are more secure," she added.
According to public information, Rubik's Cube Apartment is one of the brands under Rubik's Life Service Group (hereinafter referred to as "Magic's Life"). It was established in 2009 and focuses on providing centralized long-term rental apartment services for urban white-collar workers. Based on this positioning, the tenants of this apartment are mostly young people.
The stability guarantee that Lin Xiao believed in "collapsed" in an instant on January 13.
At around 11 a.m. that day, the WeChat group of tenants in Shanghai Jinyu Road Community of Rubik’s Apartment was suddenly disbanded. It was only after get off work that most of the tenants in the community discovered that the property owner, Shanghai Qirun Industrial Co., Ltd., had posted a special announcement letter.
Announcement letter posted by the property owner. Photo provided by interviewee
The announcement letter stated that the lease rights and operation and management rights of Mo Cube Apartment had been taken back due to long-term serious breach of contract. If the tenant is still willing to live in the apartment, he can re-sign a lease contract with the property owner. Lin Xiao told China News Service: "On the evening of January 13, the property owner negotiated with us to sign a creditor's rights transfer statement and a house rental agreement. It was stipulated that the house deposit previously paid must be refunded by the tenant himself to Rubik's Cube Apartment."
In fact, the operating problems of the Rubik's Cube Apartment store attracted attention last year.
Wang Li (pseudonym), another tenant of Shanghai Rubik's Cube Apartment, had seen posts on the topic "The Rubik's Cube Apartment exploded" around November last year. Unexpectedly, she received a notice from the staff the next month, who said, "The Rubik's Cube is no longer operating and a sublease contract needs to be signed." In mid-December last year, Wang Li applied to Rubik's Cube Apartment for a refund of more than 7,000 yuan in deposit, accommodation service fees, water and electricity bills, etc., but as of the time of publication, she had not received it yet.
There may have been signs of the operating crisis of Rubik's Cube Apartments even earlier than last year. Shanghai Nuoyi Industrial Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Noyi Industrial") signed a long-term lease agreement with a company affiliated with Rubik's Cube Life a few years ago.
"According to the original contract, the company and Rubik's Cube agreed to pay rent once every three months. Later, at the beginning of last year, the two parties negotiated and paid once a month." On January 22, a staff member of Nuoyi Industrial revealed to China News Service that Rubik's Cube Apartment began not to pay on time around March 2025, and directly defaulted on rent in July of that year. "The other party said at the time that there was no money, and now there are almost three months of rent, water and electricity bills, and garbage removal fees that have not been settled."
In addition to Shanghai Nuoyi Industrial, staff from many property owner companies in Hangzhou, Shenzhen and other places have confirmed to China News Service that the Rubik's Cube Apartment has defaulted on rent and has been in arrears for several months, and the company has terminated its cooperation with them. There are also media reports that the rent arrears to some owners of Rubik's Cube Apartments in Guangzhou ranges from hundreds of thousands to one million yuan.
Optimize and adjust while expanding new projects?
"The occupancy rate of the apartment I live in is okay, and there are many cars in the parking lot. I didn't expect Rubik's Cube to be in arrears with rent for a long time." Many tenants have such doubts like Lin Xiao.
In early January this year, Rubik's Cube Life responded to the media that according to the company's overall housing structure strategic optimization strategy, Rubik's Cube is optimizing some stores, and a small number of stores will be closed or the main body of operations will be adjusted. At present, the operation of Rubik's Cube is normal and orderly, and it is still actively developing new projects.
Previously, China News Service sent an email to Rubik's Cube Apartment to inquire about the specific situation, but had not received a reply as of press time. On January 27, China News Network inquired about the relevant situation of two stores of Shanghai Rubik's Cube Apartment as tenants. Staff said that some stores stopped operations due to the expiration of contracts, and some due to losses. The current store is still operating normally.
An interviewed property owner company staff member in Shenzhen mentioned a detail in the interview. He took over the operation and management of the Rubik's Cube Apartment after its closure and found that half of the rooms in the rental apartment were basically idle.
It is worth noting that Rubik’s Cube Life sought to be listed in 2022 and submitted an application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in September of that year.
According to previous media reports, Rubik's Life's prospectus disclosed that its revenue increased from 946 million yuan in 2019 to 1.471 billion yuan in 2021, and its net profit increased from 63.6 million yuan in 2019 to 295 million yuan in 2021. In the first half of 2022, Rubik's Cube Life's net profit attributable to shareholders was 9.248 million yuan. As of the end of 2022, Rubik's Cube Life has a total of 76,200 apartments in operation, distributed in 25 cities across the country. However, the operating data has not been updated, and the official website data is still in 2022.
According to the official website of Mofang Apartment, Mofang Life is a market-leading and rapidly growing long-term rental apartment service platform. Its apartments have two development models. One is the direct operation model, that is, the company rents the entire building or a part of the entire building, and manages and operates these rental properties; the other is the franchise management and third-party custody model, that is, the company manages and operates the franchised apartments under its own brand or the brand of the relevant client.
From the previous plan to go public to the current "strategic optimization strategy", the long-term rental apartment model has once again been questioned whether it is reliable.
This is related to changes in the rental market. Statistics from relevant agencies show that the annual average listed rent in 40 key cities across the country in 2025 will be approximately 43.3 yuan/㎡/month, a year-on-year decrease of 6.4% from last year, and the decline has narrowed.
"The rental market is divided into the landlord market and the second landlord market. Rubik's Cube Apartment is equivalent to the second landlord." Zhang Dawei, chief analyst of Centaline Real Estate, said that the second landlord and the big landlord sign a lease to lock in the rent for a certain period, and then make profits through the increase in market rental prices. He pointed out that if rental prices do not rise or rise slowly, if management costs are still relatively high, it will increase the company's operating pressure.
Lawyer: Tenants have the right to demand the return of deposit and remaining rent
In the past few days, among the tenants of Rubik's Cube Apartment in Shanghai's Jinyu Road community, some tenants said that the house was still within the lease period but they received a "rent-out" text message, and some experienced that the door password was changed. They are hesitating whether to change the house directly or renew the contract with the property owner, and how to protect their rights and interests.
Li Hongzhi, founding partner and deputy director of Beijing Zeheng Law Firm, told China News that according to the Civil Code, if the purpose of the contract cannot be realized due to a breach of contract by one party, the other party has the right to terminate the contract and terminate the performance of the unperformed portion; if the contract has been performed, it can request restoration to the original status or take other remedial measures based on the performance and the nature of the contract, and has the right to request compensation for losses.
"During the performance of the lease contract signed between Mo Cube Apartment and the tenant, if the tenant is unable to continue to use the house due to a dispute between Mo Cube Apartment and the property owner, Mo Cube Apartment's behavior constitutes a breach of contract against the tenant." Li Hongzhi said that the tenant has the right to require Mo Cube Apartment to return the deposit and the rent corresponding to the remaining lease term.
Li Hongzhi specifically mentioned that if the current dispute between Rubik's Apartment and the property owner has not been recognized or agreed by Rubik's Apartment, or confirmed by the People's Court, there is uncertainty as to whether the property owner has the right to terminate the contract and whether the court will confirm the termination of the contract between them.
For the tenant, she recommends keeping all evidence such as the lease contract, payment vouchers, and communication records. In the event that MoFang Apartment refuses to refund the deposit fee, the tenants can jointly file a lawsuit in court and apply for property preservation. If the tenant decides to sign a lease agreement with the property owner, the core terms such as lease term and rent deduction must be clarified.
For the property owner, Li Hongzhi said that during the negotiation and communication process with the Rubik's Cube Apartment party, complete evidence of the other party's breach of contract (such as the lease contract, collection records, arrears vouchers, etc.) should be collected. At the same time, the corresponding properties of Rubik's Cube Apartment will be seized, frozen and seized through litigation and property preservation to ensure that Rubik's Cube Apartment has the ability to pay the corresponding expenses.
According to Qichacha, Rubik's Cube (Shanghai) Apartment Management Co., Ltd. has been listed as a "person subject to execution for breach of trust", with the amount involved in the case exceeding 15 million yuan, and it has also been involved in multiple house rental contract disputes. (over)
