|
Wo Ju or Snail's Home, a Chinese TV series centered on the financial struggles of young urban couples buying homes in big cities, has become a hit in recent months after being aired on some local television stations.
The drama about how housing becomes unaffordable for ordinary people focuses on two sisters from a small town who find jobs in a big city after graduating from prestigious universities. The elder sister, who insists on buying a home for her three-member family, must make a monthly mortgage payment of 6,000 yuan ($882) with her husband from the couple's total salary of 9,000 yuan ($1,324). The younger sister gives her sibling part of the home's down payment from a loan she receives through a corrupt government official, who she becomes attracted to out of gratitude for his generosity.
Eventually, the younger sister becomes his mistress. Ironically, those who bribe this corrupt official are local real estate companies, who are given "tips" and "incentives" on increasing their already-handsome profits with fraud. By the end of the 35-episode TV series, the younger sister has gone through a miscarriage after being beaten by the official's wife. At the same time, the official is killed in a car crash while escaping from investigators who are probing into his corrupt practices.
Many young audience sympathizes with the two sisters because they, too, live in cities and find in the characters a shadow of their own painful experience in saving up for housing. Many feel they are "mortgage slaves" and belong to the same tribe as the elder sister in the show, but others believe skyrocketing housing prices have made even "mortgage slavery" a distant dream since they cannot afford the down payment for homes these days.
Tan Liping, an IT technician for a Beijing job website, bought an apartment in his Hubei Province home county last year because the capital's home prices are out of his reach. The 31-year-old, who rents a two-bedroom apartment with another man, said he plans to find a job in Singapore.
"I have to live away from my wife and son anyway, so why not seek even higher salaries," Tan said.
In a survey by China's major Web portal Sina.com, more than 60 percent of 36,700 voters agreed with the statement that "the drama reflects the psyche of 'mortgage slaves'" while 73 percent agreed that "it is a realistic work worth recommending to friends."
Housing prices have resumed increasing since March 2009 on record lending from financial institutions and the government's favorable policies to stimulate the real estate market, including tax breaks and interest rate cuts.
Statistics show that the average home price in Beijing has risen by 60 percent in the first 11 months in 2009, while prices have been increasing even more quickly in cities like Shenzhen.
A national survey released by the Chinese Medical Doctor Association on December 6 showed that six out of 10 Chinese white-collar workers say they are feeling over-fatigued due to work and other pressures and the No.1 cause of their anxiety is the ever-increasing cost of housing and property.
On December 7, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) released a paper on the expected Chinese economy in 2010. In it, researchers asserted that 85 percent of families would not be able to afford housing expenses as the average ratio of house prices to incomes in China in 2009 is expected to be 8.3, well beyond what is considered to be reasonably affordable. The survey said the normal and acceptable range for the ratio is between three and six.
Premier Wen Jiabao said during a State Council executive meeting on December 14 that housing prices in some cities are rising too fast and deserve "great attention."
Meeting participants decided that in order to maintain the stable and healthy development of the real estate market, China would increase the supply of smaller houses at medium and low price levels and continue to support residential consumption for improved housing.
The country will also increase construction of housing projects for low-income families, aiming to help 15.4 million more poor households solve their housing problems by 2012. Meanwhile, more efforts will be made during the next three to five years to improve living conditions for 10 million households living in substandard houses in cities across the country, meeting attendees agreed.
While the Central Government is focusing on improving living conditions for low-income groups to curb property speculation, the CASS paper said that the root of the problem behind out-of-reach property prices is the land supply system and local governments' failure to curb developers from stockpiling land.
Under the current system, the revenues from land auctions go to local governments. Scholars have been blaming the system for local governments' unwillingness to curb overheated property markets and to crack down on speculation.
| 
