(Yicai Global) May 5 -- JD.Com said it plans to invest more than CNY6 billion (USD870 million) to build apartments for the Chinese e-commerce giant’s employees to rent.

The JD Young City project will include nearly 4,000 self-owned rental apartments for workers, a kindergarten, a swimming pool, and leisure and fitness facilities, JD.Com announced on its WeChat account yesterday. The cost of renting one is likely to be about half of the going market rate, the firm added.

The project will be built on a plot of land in Beijing's Yizhuang New City, opposite JD.Com’s headquarters, which the firm bought for CNY3.1 billion in February last year. The average price of pre-owned homes nearby is more than CNY60,000 (USD8,688) per square meter.

For local governments, this kind of land transfer is conducive to the development of businesses, and it can achieve a better jobs-to-housing balance than selling directly to developers, China Securities News reported, citing Zhang Dawei, chief analyst at real estate agency Centaline Property.

Investing billions of Chinese yuan, equivalent to billions of US dollars, to attract talent is of huge benefit to JD.Com's development, Zhang noted.

JD.Com set up a CNY10 billion (USD1.5 billion) housing fund last year, the company said, adding that accommodation has been its biggest employee welfare focus in recent years and it leads the sector in this area.

The firm has more than 25,000 employee apartments in various office and logistic parks across China, having invested over CNY22 billion to improve staff living conditions, JD.Com said.

Editor: Martin Kadiev