It would take a middle-income family in Shanghai 30 years to save up for a 100-square-meter dwelling, the longest on Chinese mainland, over Guangzhou and Beijing, according to survey results released on Monday by Savills, a real estate service provider.

The survey asked how many years a local middle-income family needs to save enough for an average house in their cities. It shows that the burden of buying a house in China's first- and second-tier cities is heavier than in some foreign cities, as it takes 11 years in Stockholm, and less than 10 years in Sydney and Zurich.

Housing prices in China's big and medium-sized cities have been soaring since 2001 and saw a modest year-on-year decrease with the recent two years'?regulation. However, housing expense still takes up a huge percentage of the expenditure for middle- and low-income families, according to analysis by a real estate industry insider.

Albert Lau, managing director of Savills China, said the housing prices in first- and second-tier cities would be lowered by 10 to 20 percent this year if the policy of housing price regulation could be sustained.