China’s property market continues to decline as the population faces increasing unemployment, forcing more and more homeowners to sell their only residences. Experts analyze that a combination of factors such as demographics, economy, and consumption have stacked against the real estate market in China, suggesting that a recovery is unlikely.
In recent years, falling property prices have led to the evaporation of people’s savings. A netizen named “Sanwu” from Guangdong recently shared on social media that he is struggling with the house he bought three years ago. In early 2022, he purchased a two-bedroom apartment in Shenzhen Futian for nearly 2 million yuan as a down payment, totaling 6 million yuan. With monthly mortgage payments of 18,000 yuan, he depleted his savings accumulated over many years and went into debt of tens of thousands of yuan.
He reflects on how the situation has dramatically changed in just over three years. The properties in his neighborhood have dropped nearly 1.2 million yuan, with no signs of bottoming out. He never imagined that the money he worked hard and saved for years could vanish so quickly.
Since the beginning of the year, he has been unable to find stable employment. Battling sleepless nights filled with anxiety and fear, he feels like a failure. He often wakes up in the middle of the night questioning his decision to buy a house, wondering if he could have avoided this predicament. “Where did I get the confidence back then to guarantee a stable income for 30 years?”
He mentions that many have advised him to “let go,” anticipating a significant number of homeowners like him facing financial losses in the coming year to end their mortgage woes.
A netizen from Shenzhen expressed that many are giving up on homeownership. With the real estate market in such a slump, the increasing number of property listings each day is alarming. Many cannot accept that years of effort have ended up in disappointment, leading them back to the financial state they were in just after graduating more than a decade ago.
WeChat public account “True Stories Project” published an article on July 29 titled “People Selling Their Only Homes,” collecting three typical stories of people selling their properties.
One story featured Hangzhou’s Da Fu, who purchased a “wedding home” for 3.6 million yuan in 2021. After facing job losses and financial setbacks, Da Fu ultimately sold the house for 3 million yuan, incurring a total loss of over 1 million yuan. The carefully selected furniture was sold at a loss on a second-hand platform. The days following the house sale were filled with tears for Da Fu.
Another individual mentioned in the article is Cao Mei from Jinhua, Zhejiang, who sold her newly occupied house at a loss of over 300,000 yuan within six months, shedding six pounds in the five days following the sale.
Following the pandemic, Cao Mei’s husband’s sales industry faced a downturn, coupled with her mother’s worsening lung cancer. Basic monthly expenses for the family reached at least 30,000 yuan. Understanding the need to sell before facing further losses, Cao Mei reflected on hasty decisions made under societal pressures.
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