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China’s red-hot property market has been cooling off – in relative terms. After residential property prices doubling or even tripling in some areas last year, they were up just 68% in the first quarter of this year, and then 12% more in the second. That means they’re still way out of reach for many ordinary people, even middle-class professionals. Some have found a soundtrack, and a sympathetic website, that helps them voice their frustrations. The World’s Mary Kay Magistad reports from Beijing. Download MP3

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KATY CLARK: China’s red-hot property market has been cooling off, in relative terms. Residential property prices doubled or even tripled in some areas last year. But they rose a mere 68% in the first quarter of this year, and then 12% more in the second quarter. That means apartments are still way out of reach for many ordinary Chinese, even middle-class professionals. And some have found a soundtrack, and a sympathetic website, that give voice to their frustrations. The World’s Mary Kay Magistad reports from Beijing.

MARY KAY MAGISTAD:  It’s not a small thing in China to not be able to afford an apartment. Women expect their boyfriends to own a place before they propose. And if you’re of a certain age, say, in your 30s, in the urban middle class and you still haven’t bought your own place, that screams, “loser.” Yet with Beijing property prices going crazy in the past decade, many just can’t afford it. That led Chinese musician Shawn Huang to come up with this song, “Sell.” In his music video, people from different walks of life look at a brochure for a new apartment and calculate how long it would take for them to afford it. For the taxi driver, 125 years. For the cleaning lady, 225. And for a rich businessman, 5 days. The music video inspired a popular new website called “Wo you hua yao shuo” or “I Have Something to Say” to do its own little survey.

CHINESE SPEAKING

MAGISTAD: The announcer here says, “So after hearing this song, I want to ask each of you, if you didn’t eat or drink, how long would it take you to buy a 1000 square foot apartment in a big city?”

CHINESE SPEAKING

MAGISTAD: One guy says, “If I didn’t eat or drink? More than 100 years. That’s a very deep question.”

CHINESE SPEAKING

MAGISTAD: Other answers come flying in. Some doubt they’ll ever be able to afford their own place. Most of these people are young and middle class, and while they answer in good humor, the frustration is real, especially since a few people are buying lots of apartments and letting them stand empty. Andy Xie is a former Morgan Stanley economist.

ANDY XIE: I know a guy, a very nice guy, and a very conservative guy and it makes him quite a bit of money, but every time he has money, he buys a property. And he has empty properties in almost every province.

MAGISTAD: But he says, there’s anger and resentment among the urban middle-class, who pay high income tax and can’t afford one place, while the wealthy dodge taxes and buy up many. Still, property analyst Michael Klibaner of Jones Lang LaSalle, believes there is no property bubble in China, because demand is growing along with the massive movement of people move from China’s countryside to its cities.

MICHAEL KLIBANER: It is going to add the entire urban population of the United States to its cities over the next 12 years. This is not Dubai times a thousand. There is real fundamental demand for what’s being built in China. These are not bridges to nowhere. This is not Japan in the 90s.

MAGISTAD: Klibaner says it’s more like the United States in the 1950s, when productivity was high, and the economy was taking off. But in the United States in the 1950s, the price of a house was maybe 2 or 3 or 5 times annual income, not 20 or 30 or 100, like in China today. That could explain why Shawn Huang’s song and his music video have caught on. Millions have clicked on it, and some have left comments like, “We can only kill or be killed. It’s better to go out a hero than be crushed by the system.” “Remember to choose who you kill wisely,” meaning, government officials. Government officials seem to have heard. They’ve taken steps to cool the market, and are not, or not yet, heeding property developers who are pleading that the tightening be eased. But frustration still simmers among aspiring young Chinese who expected better, and this hot summer, “Sell” is their anthem. For The World, I’m Mary Kay Magistad in Beijing.

CLARK: Shawn Huang’s music video for “Sell” is on our homepage, TheWorld.org.

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