Financial stimulus

In 2014, property transactions and prices declined sharply and many of China's top 100 cities experienced a downturn in the housing market. In March last year, Premier Li Keqiang pledged that the central government would not only support people buying their first homes, but would also encourage them to buy larger properties to improve their standard of living. Many mortgage brokers and property dealers interpreted Li's remarks as an incentive for suburban residents to move closer to the center of Beijing.

The market was further boosted at the end of March, when the People's Bank of China, the central bank, cut down payment requirements, which, coupled with the rising value of the buyers' existing homes, made larger mortgages more accessible. Beijing also raised the ceiling for housing fund mortgages - preferred by buyers because of the lower interest rate - for first-time purchasers from 800,000 yuan to 1.2 million yuan, while the annual rate for loans of five years and longer was cut to 3.25 percent, a seven-year low.

Now, the annual interest rate for commercial loans is 4.9 percent, 20 percent lower than in February last year, which has sharply reduced the burden on mortgage payers.

"All the financial data showed that it was a good time to buy property," said Zhang Yang, an English tutor at a school in the downtown district of Dongcheng.

Unlike Wang, Zhang bought his first apartment in May 2013 in the suburban Daxing district. Although he paid top dollar, 2 million yuan, for the three-bedroom property, Zhang suffered a loss when he bought another property in July last year because the value of his apartment had fallen to 1.8 million yuan.

"I noticed the trade volume kept rising and the housing price also rose because cheap properties were being sold," he said.

Zhang had planned to buy a car to make the 30-minute drive from home to office, but after two years he has not been lucky enough to win in Beijing's license plate lottery system, under which applicants register and then wait for their number to be called.

"It seems unpredictable to buy a car, because the city has restricted the use of private cars. A better way is to move to an apartment closer to my school," he said. "Fortunately, interest rates have been adjusted to a record low and I can afford the monthly mortgage of 7,000 yuan."

In 2013, local authorities ruled that single people such as Zhang were only allowed to own one apartment, meaning he had to sell his old apartment before he could buy a new one, even though he would lose money on the transaction.

Zhang lost 200,000 yuan on the sale of his old apartment, so he borrowed 400,000 yuan from friends and bought a two-bedroom place in Dongcheng, just 10 minutes from his place of work.

His new community is home to one of Beijing's best primary schools, so Zhang won't have to worry about his children's education, when he eventually has them.