Family
Boxed in by marriage
By Lin Qi (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-10-27 11:05
"As long as people get married, housing prices will stay high," solemnly declares Fan Deliang, a 28-year-old who works in the Beijing media.
Early this year, Fan told his girlfriend's parents that he planned to wed their only daughter. He felt extremely nervous when asked whether he had already bought an apartment. He answered that since housing prices put an apartment beyond his reach, they would stay at his current two-room place, for the time being.
"My family has given me an apartment in Fujian. I might have sold that if my parents-in-law had insisted I should get one in Beijing," Fan says.
He is looking to purchase an apartment next year, although he feels discouraged by the widening gap between house prices and his savings.
The young couple currently pays just 1,800 yuan ($265) for rent, while Beijing's average price for newly-built housing is reported to exceed 15,000 yuan per sq m. This puts house ownership beyond the reach of most people.
China has been witnessing a marriage boom in recent years, with the only-child generation entering marriageable age. Swarms of brides and grooms nationwide flocked to public marriage registration departments on Sept 9 - with the number "nine" sounding the same as the auspicious ,or jiu (for a long time) - and on Oct1, the start of the National Day holidays.
Despite all the joy surrounding these weddings, many young couples feel the twin pressures of parental exhortations to invest in property and runaway real estate prices.
Zou Cheng and his then fiance bought an apartment two years ago in Beijing's southwest side at less than 10,000 yuan per sq m. Both sets of parents stepped in with the down payment.
"My parents-in-law are very thoughtful. Their financial support relieved us of considerable pressure," says Zou.
He says it is almost a nationwide custom that the groom and his family will pay for the marital home, which partly explains why a lot of grooms-to-be feel pressured to buy an apartment.
"People often joke that it is the zhang mu niang's (the bride's mother) demand for an apartment that is pushing up real estate prices. To some extent, this is true," he adds.
Zou and his wife are able to use their public housing funds to cover half the monthly mortgage, and have to pay only 2,000 yuan to the bank every month. They are among the few lucky couples to find themselves in such a comfortable situation, says Zou.
"Many of my contemporaries are not as well paid as I am. And those who aren't Beijing natives have to set aside a large part of their income for the rent. Yet, both housing prices and rentals have been soaring over the past three to four years, with incomes lagging far behind," he says.
He adds that many of his friends don't have many savings. They also have to cut down on entertainment and live quite a frugal life.
Zou's apartment value has already doubled. "If we hadn't bought it then, we would have been forced to look for something far from the city center," he says.
Demand for housing actually saw a decline during the "Golden September" and the eight-day National Day holiday periods, traditionally a time of high demand. But despite this, there was no easing of housing prices.
A survey of urban depositors in the third quarter by the People's Bank of China shows that more than 65 percent of respondents feel that current housing prices are unacceptably high. Also, 41 percent expect a continuous rise in prices by the end of the year.
Frustrated bachelors say that sooner or later they have to become either "fang nu" (slaves to house mortgages), or "ken lao zu" (those who rely on parental support).
"Marriage may not be built on a house, but housing has certainly become a major requirement for marriage today," says Liu Xin, an office worker in Shenyang, capital of Liaoning province, where house prices over the past couple of years have surged from 2,000-3,000 yuan per sq m to about 5,000 yuan per sq m.
"My girlfriend has a job as decent as mine and is even better paid than mine. Sometimes, I feel her family feels that I don't deserve her," Liu says. "Buying an apartment is one way to prove my competence."
However, with just three years in a job, he doesn't have the money to buy an apartment and will have to seek help from his parents.
Some people suggest that young couples should rent a place before they become financially capable of buying an apartment. "But few will take to the idea. It sounds pathetic, and the bride's parents may think renting is disgraceful," says Liu.
A woman subscriber of China Daily's Mobile Phone Newspaper service had this to say in its weekly topic on marriage and housing: "When we married, my ex and I could only afford to rent an apartment. We always quarreled about when to buy a house. Our solemn pledge of love withered in the face of high housing prices, and we broke up. The purchase of a house has become a core issue for the post-80s generation."
Chen Zijian, a fashion magazine editor in Beijing, says he will only consider buying an apartment when he marries. He has already borrowed from his parents for the initial payment of his car and he spends nearly 2,000 yuan a month on the car mortgage and maintenance. The extra burden from a housing loan is too much for the moment, he says.
Chen hopes he can save more in the years to come and make the down payment all by himself. "I would rather have a late marriage than ask my parents to share my housing pressure," he says.
Meanwhile, Fan is considering a second-hand apartment. But he would still need to borrow from his parents for the down payment.
Both he and his wife are not native Beijingers and feel owning an apartment is what will really make them feel attached to the city.
"After all, we want to make it (Beijing) our home," he says.
