Almost 70 percent of women interviewed for a survey regard having an apartment as a prerequisite for men to ask for marriage, Chongqing Morning Post reported Thursday quoting an survey on the status of marriage and relationships in China.

The survey of 50,383 questionnaires was jointly released on Jan 4 by the Committee of Matchmaking Service Industries of the China Association of Social Workers and baihe.com, a matchmaking service provider.

The survey also shows that 80 percent of single women believe only men who make more than 4,000 yuan($634) a month deserve to have a relationship with a woman, more than 10 percentage points up from 2010.

However, only 57 percent of women accept the claim that working well is inferior to marrying well, down from 71 percent in 2010.

In the survey, 24.6 percent of those born after 1990s started their first love while in middle school, and 3.3 percent in primary schools, while the figure for those born before 1970s is 3.6 percent and 0.6 percent, respectively.