China house prices leave workers 'unable to buy'

Search

Breaking News - India

Send to friend Discuss on CityscapeConnect.com All RSS feeds

China house prices leave workers 'unable to buy'

10 Mar 2010

Escalating house prices in parts of China continue to cause concern for middle-class workers who feel prices are climbing out of proportion to wage increases.

The Associated Press (AP) reports many young Chinese workers are struggling to purchase apartments in a market which serves only those at the top-end.

"I sigh at every fancy apartment building I see on the way to work everyday, but that won't change anything. My salary increases but it can't catch up with rising housing prices," one aspiring buyer said.

China's government has taken action to cool the market, such as raising taxes and moving the minimum required downpayment rate to 30 per cent, but such measures take time to have any effect.

A China expert at Hong Kong's University of Science and Technology, Ding Xueliang, expressed concerns that the country's government only listens "at the PR level".

Increases in property prices across China's 70 largest cities were higher in February than at any point in almost two years.

ADNFCR-1127-ID-19661261-ADNFCR