Voices

Sky-high housing prices out of reach

By Natalie Tsao (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-03-19 08:12

I settled down in Beijing last year, in a tiny flat I call "home." I rent it. It's pretty comfortable, and I have even managed to take up a new hobby - reading about the housing market.

Wandering around property forums has become a special pleasure of mine, since there are always hundreds of experts making predictions and thousands more angry people complaining. I usually just laugh and keep my mouth shut.

My life would be pretty sweet except that my mother keeps badgering me with suggestions. Such as: "How about we give you some money for the down payment, and then you can handle the monthly mortgage payments yourself. Wouldn't this be good? You will need your own home after all."

My answer is usually the same: "No". Sometimes, it is: "NO!"

Without even getting into the fact that the cost of a house completely outstrips my bank statement, I don't want to become a "house slave". (A common expression in the news.)

Even thinking about it frightens me. A large chunk of my salary already leaves my account every month. If I give up the little luxuries of buying new things, the massage on Friday nights, and a weekend meal at a nice restaurant, what would I get in return?

A small flat to live in for less than my lifetime - No thanks.

Let's be frank here, the housing market is completely out of control. I did some research and found that there are hardly any flats cheaper than 20,000 yuan per sq m inside the Fourth Ring Road in Beijing.

"It will go up to 40,000 yuan, you will see," shouted out an expert at a housing conference I attended last month. At this level, the average Beijing resident will only be able to purchase one sq m a year.

Can you imagine the conversation between husband and wife as they decide whether to extend the balcony, or go all out and save for five years to buy enough space for a shower? Stupid.

For now, I don't want to consider boxing myself into a lifetime of financial drain. Instead I dream of a future where I can laugh at those who bought extortionate houses with all their savings. Of course, that will be when the bubble bursts.

But what if it doesn't burst? Watching the housing prices continue to skyrocket worries me a little. What if demand doesn't shrink? It's possible that China's elite will keep snapping up all the properties and the authorities will allow it because they make money from the sales.

So, if real estate stability never arrives, I think there is only one choice for me - I will have to move out of the city. I hear India is a great place to invest these days...