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Internationalism cannot justify rising housing prices

By Zhang Jin (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-03-04 17:52

Editor's note: As people in developed countries can only buy a house with their life savings,should young people abandon the traditional thought of owning a property for their marriage?

A member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, China's top advisory body, was lambasted after he attempted to justify the skyrocketing property prices that shattered many people's dream of having a flat.

Mao Yonghong, who made a sizeable fortune by building houses, said in an interview on Tuesday: "A man should not complain to the government, society or property developers for not being able to buy a house."

He also called for young people to abandon the traditional thought of owning a property for their marriage, saying people in developed countries such as Japan, the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany, who were far more affluent than the Chinese, can only buy a house with their life savings.

Mao was the latest property tycoon who used the foreign example to convince aspiring home-owners of the out-of-reach realty prices. But his reasoning is wrong.

On one hand, Mr Mao told us that it was an international practice that young people cannot buy a house. On the other hand, he did no bother to mention how big and better houses in these foreign countries are. And of course, he ignored foreign countries' public housing scheme and low-rent flat system, which China is still struggling to improve.

"Learning from international practice" thus becomes a lofty slogan borrowed by these developers to fool people.

Indeed, having read too many reports about officials colluding with property developers, obscure land-bidding processes and vicious hoarding of properties, people wonder whether housing prices are driven high by the real demand or they are manipulated.