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18% of women accept propertyless sons-in-law

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-03-09 23:11

BEIJING - Facing ever rising home prices in China, 18 percent of mothers would be willing to let their daughters marry men who rent their homes, according to a survey conducted by the Beijing-based 5i5j Real Estate Service Tuesday.

"Our survey shows that quite a few would-be mother-in-laws in China are becoming flexible on the issue of their future son-in-laws home buying," said Qin Rui, a senior analyst with the Beijing-based 5i5j Real Estate Service.

In specific, 27 percent of mothers in Beijing were happy for their daughters to marry men who rent their homes, while the rates in Tianjin and Shanghai were 15 percent and 12 percent respectively, according to the survey.

Some 76 percent of mother-in-laws in the country would like "to give a hand" when their son-in-laws buy their own homes. Some 20 percent of mother-in-laws would accept having their son-in-laws living under the same roof, the survey showed.

The survey was conducted from February 23 to March 1 this year, and the results rely on 2,000 valid and completed questionnaires from both the 5i5j's website and its branches in eight large- and medium-sized cities in China.

These cities are Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Nanjing, Taiyuan, Ningbo, Suzhou and Hangzhou, said Qin, adding that the survey was carried out by the company's market research department in responding to the debate on whether mother-in-laws significantly contributed to pushing up home prices in the country.

In China, mothers have a great influence on who their daughters marry. And traditionally, mothers would prefer their daughters to marry men who could afford a house before marriage.

Figures from the National Bureau of Statistics showed China's home prices in 70 large- and medium-sized cities, a housing price trend barometer, rose 1.5 percent in 2009 year on year. Home prices climbed 9.5 percent in January 2010 from a year earlier, the fastest growth in 19 months.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on Friday reiterated the government's determination to curb the excessive growth of house prices in major cities while satisfying people's basic needs for housing as the annual session of China's top legislature opened.