Since the second half of 2021, China's property market has undergone tremendous changes, and house prices, which have been high for a long time, have finally begun a downward trend. According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, the average house price in the mainland has dropped from more than 11,000 yuan per square meter in 2021 to about 9,600 yuan now, a decrease of more than 1,000 yuan.
The overall decline in house prices this time is the result of multiple factors. First of all, the epidemic has had a severe impact on the economy, affecting all walks of life; Secondly, after decades of rapid development, the mainland property market has faced a serious oversupply, and residents in most cities have already bought houses, resulting in an oversupply of houses that is not easy to sell.
Entering 2023, although some media claim that the property market has "rapidly recovered", this is not the case. Only a few first- and second-tier cities have seen an increase in the transaction volume of commercial housing, and the price increase is mainly concentrated in high-quality areas. Most of the other third-, fourth- and fifth-tier cities and counties, whether it is housing prices or transaction volume, have not shown obvious signs of recovery.
On the contrary, despite the positive introduction of a series of home buying policies in recent years, the number of home buyers has gradually decreased. If the government stops intervening in the property market in the future, it is likely to accelerate the decline in housing prices in many cities. Based on the current situation, house prices are expected to continue to fall in 2023.
However, what makes many people feel helpless is that the problem of high housing prices has not been effectively solved, but some more difficult problems have emerged, which is very troublesome. The first problem is the rising rents.
Some people once naively thought that as long as they did not buy real estate, no matter how high the house price was, it would not affect them too much. However, the impact of high housing prices is too great and has seriously affected the lives of renters. At present, high housing prices lead to high rents becoming a top problem. In general, the cost of renting in cities with higher housing prices is also higher, and rents tend to account for 30% to 50% of the income of wage earners; Excluding day-to-day expenses, many people who make a living in big cities struggle to save enough money to build their own families.
Especially recently, many people have complained that landlords in big cities have begun to increase rents, and the rent of single rooms and suites has generally increased by 50 to 150 yuan, which further increases the financial burden of renters.
The second problem is that house rot is becoming more common. In recent years, especially since the crisis of the leading company Evergrande, many buyers who have purchased off-plan properties but have not yet delivered them have been worried, because the phenomenon of unfinished property around them is becoming more and more common, and everyone is worried that the property they have purchased will stop working.
In the past two years, although many real estate projects have not directly announced the end of the project, it has become the norm due to lack of funds and continuous delays in construction progress. The main reason for this phenomenon is that the current housing is becoming more and more difficult to sell, developers cannot quickly return funds, and the capital chain is broken; At the same time, due to the impact of policies, the government's supervision of the real estate market has increased, and the financing channels for developers have narrowed, causing a series of problems.
The third problem is that huge mortgages crush young people. High housing prices cost young people who buy homes a lot. Due to the difficulty of raising enough funds to buy a house, many people can only use their parents' savings, or even borrow millions or even tens of millions of yuan to buy a house from a bank mortgage, and the loan period can be as long as 20 or even 30 years.
However, with the passage of time, the aging problem of the mainland has become increasingly serious, and parents are facing pension and medical problems due to being hollowed out of their savings, thus increasing the financial burden of young people. On the other hand, the high monthly payment makes young people dare not slack, even if almost all the money earned from overtime is used to pay off the mortgage, and there is almost no other entertainment expenditure. In other words, their quality of life has been completely consumed by a house.
In short, the turbulent changes in the mainland property market in recent years have triggered a series of chain reactions, which have had a profound impact on home buyers, renters and the overall economy. Although the property market in some cities has recovered, on the whole, it is difficult for house prices to reverse the downward trend in the short term. While solving the problem of high housing prices,
Attention also needs to be paid to the continued evolution of related issues. Solving the problem of high housing prices is just one of many problems that plague people.
First of all, the development of the rental market should be strengthened. As house prices continue to rise, the rising cost of renting has become a problem that cannot be ignored. The government can introduce policies to encourage and regulate the development of the rental market, increase rental options, and reduce rental pressure. In addition, new housing models such as condominiums can be encouraged to meet diversified housing needs.
Second, it is necessary to strengthen the supervision of the real estate market to prevent the problem of unfinished buildings from spreading further. The government can strengthen the supervision of real estate enterprises' funds to ensure that developers can deliver buyers' properties on time and reduce the phenomenon of unfinished business. At the same time, relevant laws and regulations should be improved, and the protection of the rights and interests of home buyers should be clarified, so that buyers can obtain reasonable compensation when they encounter unfinished problems.
For young people's huge mortgage pressure, the government can introduce more flexible and diversified loan products to provide longer loan terms and reduce their monthly payment pressure. In addition, young people can also be encouraged to buy housing through tax policies and other means, while focusing on the establishment and improvement of the pension system to reduce the pressure of family pension.
In general, the current Chinese property market is facing many challenges, which require the joint efforts of many parties to solve them. While stabilizing housing prices, we should also pay attention to the development of the rental market, strengthen market supervision, and reduce the pressure of young people's mortgages. Only comprehensive measures can gradually alleviate various problems brought by the real estate market and realize the people's dream of a better residence.