In a recent video, a woman in Wuhan, Hubei Province, claimed that she spent 4 million Chinese yuan in 2016 to buy two houses, but now she can’t sell them for even 1.5 million yuan. This news has attracted the attention of netizens and trended on Baidu on January 1st.
The video has been widely circulated on Chinese social media platforms recently. According to a video uploaded by the Jingmen Evening News on December 31, the woman in her thirties displayed her property certificates and the residential area where the houses are located in the video.
In the video, the woman expressed her frustration, saying, “Buying houses is said to be the best way to hedge against inflation, which I believe is the biggest lie I’ve heard. In my case, I bought two houses for 4 million yuan in 2016, and now I can only sell them for 1.5 million yuan. Not only did I lose 2.5 million yuan on paper, but also considering loan interest and an annual property management fee of 5,500 yuan, the situation is even worse. The most important thing is that I can’t even sell them at the current price.”
She cautioned everyone by saying, “For those below the middle class, it’s better to hold onto cash and not to make hasty investments… If given another chance, I would definitely not buy houses again.”
The video has sparked a lot of attention among netizens. Some asked about the location of the houses she bought, to which she replied, “Wuhan.” Others recalled that around 2015-2016, a colleague moved back to Wuhan from Shenzhen and bought a house in the Optics Valley for over 9,000 yuan per square meter, which was considered relatively expensive at the time.
One netizen calculated that with 4 million yuan, it seems unlikely that a single young woman like the lady in question could have purchased two houses ranging from 100 to almost 200 square meters each. They also mentioned that if it was for investment, she would have had opportunities to sell over the years.
A Baidu user shared insights, mentioning, “Not sure about Wuhan, but the property prices in Zhengzhou have definitely dropped by this much.”
While some netizens acknowledged the drop in housing prices in Wuhan, they believe that such a significant decrease is only seen in a minority of cases.
Some users suggested that the blogger might be exaggerating the situation to drive up anxiety and attract more followers.