During previous Olympic Games, it was not uncommon to hear about some local governments of the Chinese Communist Party or real estate developers rewarding champion athletes with houses. However, during this edition of the Olympics, such news of rewarding houses has been scarce. Experts believe that in previous years, the entire real estate market was booming, and developers had abundant funds. Currently, with developers facing financial strains, they do not have the capacity to make decisions on rewards.
The Daily Economic News reported on August 5 that after the 2004 Athens Olympics, Olympic champion Liu Xiang was awarded a property in Shanghai, marking the beginning of a trend where champion athletes were gifted houses as a customary tradition. During the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the Huakuai Group gifted five Olympic champions – Liu Zige, Wu Minxia, Wang Liqin, Huo Liang, and Zou Shiming – each with a property in the Minhang district of Shanghai’s New Pujiang City, with the total value of each unit exceeding 1 million yuan.
At the 2012 London Olympics, the Greenland Group gifted Sun Yang and Ye Shiwen each a property in Hangzhou’s Feicui City, with each unit valued at around 3 million yuan.
During the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, the Yagor Group publicly announced the gifting of a property in Ningbo Jiangshang Garden to shooting athlete Yang Qian from Ningbo, with the total value of the property ranging from 2.85 million to 4.4 million yuan.
However, this edition of the Olympics has seen very few news reports regarding rewards of houses. After Chinese athlete Zheng Qinwen won the women’s singles tennis championship at the Paris Olympics, there were market rumors about a congratulatory poster from China Resources Land.
Tan Haojun, a part-time professor at Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, mentioned that in previous Olympic Games, various developers rewarded champion athletes with houses due to the booming real estate market, increased sales, and sufficient capital. Currently, real estate developers are facing tighter financial constraints, with poor sales turnover, making them unable to make decisions on rewards. Additionally, some developers are still under heavy debt pressure, making it unsuitable for them to publicly use house gifting as a marketing strategy.
Moreover, there have been reports of real estate companies mortgaging rewarded properties due to debts. After the conclusion of the 2004 Athens Olympics, a real estate company in Wuhan gifted three prime properties to two athletes and one coach from Hubei Province. Surprisingly, this real estate company privately mortgaged these properties along with an additional nine already sold properties to a pawnshop. This came to light when the Olympic champions were informed by the court that the houses gifted to them had been maliciously mortgaged by the developers as part of an unsettled debt of over 6 million yuan to the pawnshop.