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We should rent flats and not blow money on fancy homes
By Zhang Zhimin |
January 11, 2010, Monday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
THE current housing prices in Shanghai are too high for ordinary people to afford and will reduce the competitiveness of the city in attracting new talents if the prices continue to rise.
It's naiaeve, however, to wish housing prices to fall immediately.
I suggest that we ordinary people should not pour any more oil on the fire of rising housing prices by jumping on the bandwagon of those caught up in blind purchase of apartments out of fear of higher prices.
Why can't we just rent an apartment while rentals are reasonably affordable now? There are many good reasons just to rent an apartment now in Shanghai.
Aside from reasonable rental prices, it's in our interest to buy our own apartment in the future as the building quality may well be better than it is today.
In this regard, we should give Mr Wang Shi, chairman of Vanke Co Ltd, credit for being honest when he said recently that housing prices are now too high and the building quality should be improved to match those skyhigh prices.
Renting an apartment also enables us to move easily with a change of jobs. It is really annoying to spend too much time in traffic between home and office.
Last but not least, by renting we will not use the limited pool of money of our parents to buy an apartment. In many cities today, many children squeeze money from their parents to buy fancy apartments.
It's simply a shame. Few of those parents are millionaires, they have saved some money - really not too much - through a frugal life. And now you want to devour it and squander it just to meet your irrational desire for a fancy apartment?
Why not save money yourself? Why not rent first and wait until you have enough money to pay the down payment on your desired apartment?
It's naiaeve, however, to wish housing prices to fall immediately.
I suggest that we ordinary people should not pour any more oil on the fire of rising housing prices by jumping on the bandwagon of those caught up in blind purchase of apartments out of fear of higher prices.
Why can't we just rent an apartment while rentals are reasonably affordable now? There are many good reasons just to rent an apartment now in Shanghai.
Aside from reasonable rental prices, it's in our interest to buy our own apartment in the future as the building quality may well be better than it is today.
In this regard, we should give Mr Wang Shi, chairman of Vanke Co Ltd, credit for being honest when he said recently that housing prices are now too high and the building quality should be improved to match those skyhigh prices.
Renting an apartment also enables us to move easily with a change of jobs. It is really annoying to spend too much time in traffic between home and office.
Last but not least, by renting we will not use the limited pool of money of our parents to buy an apartment. In many cities today, many children squeeze money from their parents to buy fancy apartments.
It's simply a shame. Few of those parents are millionaires, they have saved some money - really not too much - through a frugal life. And now you want to devour it and squander it just to meet your irrational desire for a fancy apartment?
Why not save money yourself? Why not rent first and wait until you have enough money to pay the down payment on your desired apartment?
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