Why many middle-income families in Beijing are moving underground
Why many middle-income families in Beijing are moving underground
The only way is down
Better-known for accommodating migrant workers, Beijing’s underground apartments are becoming increasingly popular among mid-market home-seekers looking to overcome soaring property prices in areas close to the Chinese capital schools, the South China Morning Post reported.
Sales of basement and subbasement units are occurring mostly in the Xicheng and Dongcheng districts, home to many of the city’s elite schools.
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“Subbasements are a great option, as the earliest buyers of the school district homes are concerned about changes in school distribution policy, while the latecomers are worried that prices have surged to an unaffordable level,” Fang Lin, the father of a preschool child, told the Post.
Coupled with recently passed property curbs on second-time buyers, the toll of housing down-payments on Beijing parents has grown ever more humongous. Home values in the Xicheng and Dongcheng districts have zoomed past CNY100,000 (USD14,400) per square metre.
Underground units are not impervious to the skyrocketing market though. One unit near a primary school sold for a record CNY9 million earlier this month, the Post reported.
Some 616 underground units were sold in the first eight months of the year, the Post reported, citing a report by property consultancy Yunfang Data.
Beijing placed fourth in the latest quarterly Global Residential Cities Index with a year-on-year home price growth of 30.4 percent in the third quarter.
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Source: Property Report