{"id":8689,"date":"2017-01-10T09:00:53","date_gmt":"2017-01-10T14:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/?p=8689"},"modified":"2020-09-14T09:46:22","modified_gmt":"2020-09-14T14:46:22","slug":"getting-married-china-dont-get-sucked-property-bubble","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/blog\/getting-married-china-dont-get-sucked-property-bubble\/","title":{"rendered":"Getting Married in China? Don\u2019t Get Sucked into the Property Bubble"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s an age-old story of expat life in China. \u00a0The young foreigner arrives on China\u2019s shores, looking to make a life for himself. \u00a0After securing a job, learning Chinese, and settling in, maybe he finds a girlfriend. \u00a0Sooner than he expects, maybe after only a few months, she begins to discuss marriage, throwing up the first roadblock in their relationship. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Maybe our adventurous foreigner is truly head-over-heels in love and jumps into marriage, or maybe he delays for a few years. \u00a0In any case, when the time for marriage does come, another complication is presented . . . her family is demanding that he buy a house or apartment, in addition to a car, before the marriage ceremony \u2013 otherwise they won\u2019t consent to the marriage. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I use \u201che\u201d in my example above because this scenario is most applicable to male foreigners in China. \u00a0Foreign women who date Chinese men will be expected to conform to the traditional Chinese female role, just as foreign men are expected to conform to the traditional male role. \u00a0And it is traditionally the groom\u2019s responsibility in China to provide his bride with a bedrock of stability in the form of property \u2013 whether or not that groom or bride is a foreigner or Chinese. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As in many countries, marriage in China is a blend of Western and traditional Chinese cultural institutions. Centuries-old Chinese conceptions about what it means to be properly married often collide with Western practices that take into account the practicalities of modern life. \u00a0China is a country in rapid transition, and the generation gap is quite wide. \u00a0While younger Chinese may not hold to traditional conceptions about marriage, their parents likely do. \u00a0And because Confucian filial piety pressures still hold weight, the twenty-somethings in China still obey much of what their forty-something parents tell them. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition, some traditional conceptions are changing more rapidly than others. \u00a0For instance, traditionally in China when a girl gets married she is viewed as leaving her birth family to become part of the groom\u2019s family. This is one reason why there is a gender imbalance in China today. \u00a0Because girls are traditionally viewed as a net loss for her family, boys are preferred. \u00a0And as a consequence of China\u2019s One-Child Policy (which has recently been overturned, but the effects of which will remain for some time) in rural areas, there have been reports of female infanticide and sex-selective abortions in favor of boys. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

However, obviously most families do not abort or kill their daughters, so another consequence of the One-Child Policy has been an elevated appreciation and status for girls within many families. Traditionally-minded families with daughters as the only child care a lot about the status of the man their daughter will marry. If your future wife\u2019s family is traditionally-minded, you will be pressured to provide for her in the form of property. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The likelihood that a foreign expat will have traditionally-minded in-laws varies from region to region. \u00a0People might adhere to some more Western values in the cities than in rural areas, for example. \u00a0Nonetheless, even if your significant other\u2019s immediate family in the city does not require that you invest in property, her extended family still living in rural China might.<\/span><\/p>\n

To continue with our prototypical expat story, let\u2019s say his bride to be has a very traditionally-minded family, and let\u2019s say our expat has succeeded in making enough money in China to invest in some property. \u00a0Should he do it? \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The answer is an unequivocal no, for two reasons: the overall quality of Chinese housing and China\u2019s property bubble, which are interrelated.<\/span><\/p>\n

The poor quality of housing in China has been widely reported on. \u00a0While housing developments in other countries have lifespans of one or more centuries, <\/span>Chinese housing officials revealed in 2010 <\/span>(link 1) that many residential buildings in the country might not last 20 years. In fact, on average, modern Chinese residential developments only remain livable for 35 years. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

High-rise apartment buildings collapse unexpectedly more often in China. \u00a0<\/span>The latest incident was in October in Wenzhou<\/span> (link 2), when 22 people died after their apartment block fell apart around them. \u00a0While such incidents are extreme cases, at the very least you might \u00a0find that the new apartment you\u2019ve bought quickly develops cracks in the walls due to cheap plaster and that the walls are poorly insulated or that the finishing was poorly designed in the first place with uneven tiles, rusted and ruptured plumbing, or broken handles and faucets. \u00a0While the value of the property you buy may appreciate in value, it may not appreciate enough to cover the costs you put in for renovations to offset rapid deterioration. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

One also has to take into consideration the quality of the apartment building itself, since you will most likely buy an apartment as opposed to a house, which is in the hands of building management officials. \u00a0And the sad fact is that in the face of such problems like collapsing elevators or falling ceiling tiles or dead light bulbs, the consequence of poor construction in the first place, many managers are reluctant to invest in upkeep. \u00a0Even if they agree to fix the recurring problems, you\u2019ll be faced with continual noise pollution from the constant refurbishment and construction. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And why are building managers in China reluctant to invest in upkeep? \u00a0Because many buildings in China are not designed to last 70 years (the maximum amount of time that one can own property legally in China \u2013 since the owned property is technically leased from the government), let alone 35 years (the average amount of time that property does survive). \u00a0And this is because much of China\u2019s economy has been fueled in the recent past by its housing sector. \u00a0The market in home construction and outfitting is estimated to make up about 15% of China\u2019s G.D.P., <\/span>Chinese households hold 74.7% of their assets in real estate<\/span> (link 5), <\/span>and China\u2019s construction industry accounts for one-third of the country\u2019s total energy consumption. \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The overall trend since the middle of this year in China\u2019s housing market has been <\/span>continually rising prices despite an excess of supply<\/span> (link 4). \u00a0This is due to consumer confidence in the Chinese government\u2019s efforts to reduce that supply. \u00a0This effort, however, has largely been fueled by debt-based growth policies designed to offset the effects of the stock market collapse last year. \u00a0The government, since the middle of this year, has reversed course and attempted to cool down expansion by imposing restrictions on bank lending and purchases in booming major cities. \u00a0Meanwhile, investors continue to speculate in property in an effort to recoup their stock losses. \u00a0Prices continue to rise and new, empty developments continue to spring up at a faster rate than they\u2019re demolished. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What this all means is that if you choose to bet your savings on buying property in China, you\u2019re essentially betting that China\u2019s government will succeed in its balancing act and prevent the housing bubble from bursting. <\/span>Millions of Chinese have made that bet <\/span>(link 3), and they will undoubtedly pressure you to do the same, particularly if you plan to marry. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

If you are unwilling to make that bet, then you should resist the pressure of your in-laws and invest in property in other countries, particularly in your country of citizenship since you\u2019ll be able to acquire genuine title in your name. \u00a0It might take longer to accumulate the savings, but in the end, it\u2019s probably a safer investment. Another alternative within China is to invest in mutual funds through Chinese banks. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

If you are planning on marrying in China, you will likely face this kind of decision. Whatever you decide, you must recognize the risks inherent in jumping headfirst into China\u2019s property bubble. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s an age-old story of expat life in China. \u00a0The young foreigner arrives on China\u2019s shores, looking to make a life for himself. \u00a0After securing a job, learning Chinese, and settling in, maybe he finds a girlfriend. \u00a0Sooner than he expects, maybe after only a few months, she begins to discuss marriage, throwing up the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":308,"featured_media":8245,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[5045,1792,13285,13274,1805,13284,13275,13276,2033,13277,7173,13279,13282,2100,13286,13278,13273,13283,13280,13281],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/image00-2.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8689"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/308"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8689"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8689\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30245,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8689\/revisions\/30245"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8689"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=8689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}