In 2013, Xiao Tang, who used to work in the Internet industry, dreamed of settling down in Beijing. He bought two properties in the surrounding areas of Beijing, one in Dachang, Hebei Province, and the other in Baodi, Tianjin. These two properties had mortgages of 11 years and 9 years respectively, which later became the source of his pain. Ultimately, he decided to sell the houses and return to his hometown, resulting in a total loss of 700,000 RMB, with the Baodi property accounting for 600,000 RMB of the loss. Since last year, property prices in the surrounding areas of Beijing have dropped to “a few thousand yuan per square meter”.
Twelve years ago in 2013, Xiao Tang, a migrant worker in Beijing, aspired to make a home in the city and took out a loan to buy his first property in Dachang. Twelve years later, amidst a wave of unemployment, his only wish was to sell the house quickly and return to his hometown.
The money he had saved through years of hard work in Beijing seemed to have vanished into thin air for Xiao Tang. Disappointed, he self-derided as the “tragicomedy of my life” on social media. In the comments section, many people who had bought houses at the same time as him empathized with his situation. They had all believed they were making the right decision in line with the times. The properties in the surrounding areas of Beijing were touted as a tenth of the price of houses in Beijing, promising potential price hikes, cashing out, or settling down for a better life. Filled with dreams for the future, they joyfully made their purchases, only to be hit hard when the property market in the surrounding areas of Beijing plummeted below their psychological threshold.
Xiao Tang recounts his experience: In 2016, he bought a 96-square-meter two-bedroom apartment in Baodi, Tianjin for a total price of 650,000 RMB. At that time, the property sales promised that there would be a high-speed rail in the area in the future, driving up the property prices. However, this “premium” two-bedroom apartment, merely 130 kilometers away from Tiananmen Square, became a source of anxiety and pain for him. The delay in the high-speed rail construction left the house vacant for 9 years. There was an opportunity to sell for 580,000 RMB, but believing that prices would rise again, he missed it. Subsequently, property prices plummeted, even dropping below 200,000 RMB. Finally, he sold the house for 150,000 RMB, resulting in a loss of over 600,000 RMB.
Approaching 35 years old, facing waves of layoffs in the Internet industry, Xiao Tang couldn’t find a new job. With monthly mortgages of nearly 4,000 RMB for the two properties and a monthly rent of 2,500 RMB in Beijing, he found himself overwhelmed. The double blow of the property market crash and unemployment left him completely shattered, believing that all hopes for the future had been shattered.
Xiao Tang’s experience is not unique. Many people who bought properties in the surrounding areas of Beijing around the same time as him are facing similar challenges. At that time, they believed that the surrounding areas of Beijing were a good investment choice, but the sharp decline in property prices led them to incur significant losses. Real estate agents and market promotions had led them to believe that buying property was a secure investment, only to find out it was a huge trap.
Now, after selling his properties, Xiao Tang’s proceeds are only enough for a down payment on a house in his hometown. He regrets his past impulsive spending and realizes that such decisions are full of risks in a career filled with uncertainty. He laments that while people advocated for impulse consumption back then, they never mentioned the huge cost behind it.
His friends advised him against sharing information about falling property prices, as it would “disturb the market.”
The grim situation in the property market in the surrounding areas of Beijing is not coincidental. Around 2015 to 2017, Beijing property prices surged rapidly, leading many migrants and investors who couldn’t afford the prices in Beijing to look towards the surrounding areas of Beijing, such as Yanjiao, Dachang, Gu’an, Xianghe in Hebei, and Wuqing, Baodi in Tianjin. The property prices in these areas were relatively lower and were marketed as benefiting from the integration of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, with significant potential for price appreciation.
In 2016, represented by Yanjiao, the “Northern Three Counties”, property prices soared to high levels: Yanjiao’s new home prices ranged from 25,000 RMB/square meter to 30,000 RMB/square meter; Dachang’s new home prices ranged from 17,000 RMB/square meter to 18,000 RMB/square meter.
Chinese media reported that a post-90s from Fujian, who had never even been to Beijing, was persuaded to buy property in the surrounding areas of Beijing.
However, since 2017, the Chinese government has implemented the strictest purchase restrictions in the surrounding areas of Beijing. For example, non-local residents need to pay three years of social security or personal income tax to buy a property, and it takes several years to sell the property after obtaining the property certificate. This has led to a rapid freeze in market transactions, with investors blocked and demand sharply shrinking.
The prosperity of the property market in the surrounding areas of Beijing largely relied on the overflow effect from Beijing itself; however, local industrial development and job opportunities did not keep pace. When property prices fell, many people found it difficult to achieve convenient commuting between Beijing and the surrounding areas of Beijing, coupled with insufficient public service facilities (such as education and healthcare), making it difficult to retain a permanent population, which resulted in local demand failing to support a vast supply of properties.
As the market cooled down, real estate companies faced immense financial pressure and, in order to recover funds, began offering low-priced properties, even promoting them at prices significantly below market value. This vicious competition further depressed the entire region’s property prices, forming a vicious cycle.
Property prices in the surrounding areas of Beijing have dropped precipitously and are becoming more “affordable”. Since 2024, Dachang County’s property prices have dropped to lower levels. Listings on real estate platforms show prices in this area around 12,000 RMB/square meter, a drop of about 56% from the peak. However, some sellers are pricing properties at around 7,000 RMB/square meter. In areas like Sanhe, Dachang, and Xianghe, properties priced at a few thousand yuan per square meter can be found everywhere.
There is a group of people quietly entering the surrounding areas of Beijing, navigating between the “worst-hit neighborhoods”, preparing to “pick up the pieces”, only to find that everywhere is full of “pieces”.
Property prices in the surrounding areas of Beijing have fallen back to 2015 levels, but many properties remain unsold even after price reductions because over the years of rapid price increases, too much land was sold, and too many houses were built, resulting in a vast inventory of second-hand properties.
In recent years, the populations of the four cities in the surrounding areas of Beijing have all declined. The populations and property markets in the surrounding areas of Beijing are both experiencing widespread declines, with the once “backyard of Beijing” no longer shining.