Wu Guangqiang jw368@163.com THERE is an odd sight in Shenzhen: realtors standing along the streets holding signs showing the names of certain properties for sale or rent with their prices. I wonder if expensive homes would be peddled like vegetables in the street in any other country. I have never tried to buy or sell a home in this way, so I have no idea whether they hawk houses in the street because the houses are in short supply or overabundance. In Nanshan District, the jaw-dropping prices are still rising at a torrid rate. Any apartment unit larger than 130 square meters built in the last five years costs over 10 million yuan (US$1.57 million). Large units are often beyond the 20-million-yuan tag. Even decades-old homes are getting beyond ordinary buyers’ means. In the residential estate where I live, the prices of apartments built in the early 1990s were around 20,000 yuan per square meter three years ago, and about 30,000 yuan last year. But they have shot up to nearly 60,000 yuan now. Rent prices are also rising sharply. The apartment we bought in 1989 is only 64 square meters in area. Since we moved to a larger unit in 2005, my wife has been in charge of leasing the original one. The initial rent was 1,000 yuan and it gradually grew to 1,500, 2,000, and 2,500 until it had hit 4,000 by the end of July this year. All of a sudden, rent prices saw another leap in July, and the price of my old, tiny flat jumped from 4,000 to 5,000 yuan for unknown reasons, though rumors suggest it was because Shekou was designated as part of Guangdong’s free trade zone. The only thing I know for sure is that the young men who rented my apartment were forced to move out and look for something smaller and cheaper. Many young people are coming to Shenzhen to pursue their dreams, but their passions and desires are being shattered by the skyrocketing housing prices. Another incident recently impacted the city’s migrants, the main force of Shenzhen’s economic growth, in a negative way. In the same property estate where my old apartment is, over 250 units had been leased at affordable prices to migrant workers. But the property owner, China Merchants, decided last month to sell all of the units by auction. It meant that thousands of tenants had to move out. The move sparked anger and protests, but nothing could be done. What can disadvantaged migrant workers do in the face of powerful real estate developers? Someone may argue that Shenzhen’s strong housing market reflects its dynamic economic growth and huge growth potential and that the robust housing market is the result of the real supply-demand relationship in Shenzhen. This may be partially true. But I think that unless Shenzhen’s government does something to curb the overheating housing prices, Shenzhen will suffer, rather than benefit, from the runaway prices. Shenzhen does not enjoy the political resources of cities like Beijing, nor does it have any natural resources. The only strength Shenzhen possesses is its grass-roots entrepreneurship and innovative spirit nourished by the city’s constant reforms. The backbone of Shenzhen’s economy is millions of small-and-medium-sized businesses, which outperform their competitors in other cities by taking advantage of Shenzhen’s supportive policies and a business-friendly environment — which should include affordable land and property. However, with the meteoric increase in the cost of living, Shenzhen is rapidly losing its attraction to new dream-chasers. When home and office prices become unaffordable not only for low-income groups but also for middle-class and high-income groups, the city will lose its vigor and its development will stagger. When a city’s residents are intoxicated with the sharp expansion of their wealth as a result of housing or stock price hikes rather than that of real economic growth, it’s the end of the city. Hong Kong’s housing market undermined its competitiveness. Shenzhen should learn from that. (The author is an English tutor and a freelance writer.) | 