Been away for awhile, finding it hard to stay motivated to do the blog because there is so much on here all the time.
Promised months ago that I would do some more on housing and finally have some photos to add even though one of my mates back in Oz has accused me of being in cahoots with the developers’ promotional strategy. Merely reporting what I see, as usual, G.
The housing market (or more appropriately, the high-rise apartment market) is booming in all key cities of China. Despite the Government’s efforts, inflation in the housing is still seemingly rampant which is making it very hard for the really low income earners and there are many million of these.
Last year, a Chinese colleague put a deposit on an apartment off the plan as they say back home and will wait about two years to take up residency on floor 21 of the 24 storey complex that is already well under construction.
Like many other Chinese teachers at the University, she decided to get in early while the market was still relatively cheap. For Y500000 (about $77000 AU), she will eventually move into a bare bones, concrete-shell, apartment that will need tiling painting and furnishing, easily consuming another Y200000 or so.
For a lecturer on a salary of approximately Y40000 a year and relying on a single income, it is no mean feat. I am told that the same apartment now (12 months later) is worth a minimum of Y750000 (110,000AU) so it is good that she moved into the market when she did.
You can go to all these ritzy apartment display centres where you will feted and approached to see if you are interested in buying (check out the snaps). The landscaping around these display centres is always first class, but having visited an estate for lower income earners much further out of town, I am not sure that this is always the case with the finished product. Anyway, the finished product always looks first class and I wouldn’t find it too hard to live there as long as the lift worked. Not sure of what, if any, energy saving features these properties have, but, I will add more about that at some other time.
By the way, for the money you only get a 50 year lease, so I don’t know what is expected to happen if you are unfortunate enough to happen to outlive your time.
Zaijian
Zhang Qi
Good to see you’re back to blogging. I guess you don’t have much time to keep up the blogging what with all your galavanting around to display/promotional centres and being feted by their sales teams. On a more serious note: your teaching colleague certainly picked the right time to get into the market. Would she be able to realise such an attractive profit margin by on-selling what’s left of her 50-year lease?
Signifcicant inflation Guenter so, yes, there is significant profit to be made if you want to sell but of course only if you are a speculator. Off to Bali day after tomorrow but hopefully will have some time to put a few blogs together there. Cheers
I guess with the population density, up is the only way to go but its not very attractive, looks like New York City suburbs.The green spaces do help but that’s a lot of people in one area.Thanks for posting, it is so interesting.
Yeah June, it is not really attractive but it is the only way the Chinese can practically develop housing as only 7% of thier land is suitable for agriculture so, up, it unfortunately has to be. Thanks for your patience