Marriage and misguided property policies

About 95 percent of Beijing-based young women say that ownership of an apartment has a major impact on their level of happiness, according to a survey released on Monday.

In addition, about one third of respondents view ownership of an apartment as a prerequisite to accepting a marriage proposal, according to the survey, conducted by the University of International Business and Economics and the Social Sciences Academic Press in 2013. In other words, if a young man does not have an apartment, he may be unable to find a bride.

This will not surprise you if you have a basic understanding of China's social reality.

China's home prices have risen to such a high level that it often takes the current and future savings of two families — the parents of both the man and woman thinking of getting married — to buy an apartment in major cities like Beijing and Shanghai. In many cases, the parents have to pay the mortgage for the young couple in addition to spending a large part of their savings on the down payment.

But does home ownership have anything to do with love and marriage?

Indeed, though buying an apartment -which is extremely expensive - can be a sign of love, marriage should not be automatically linked to this purchase.

However, as so many women agree that housing is an important element in their decision to marry, society should examine what makes them think like this.

Some say that it is an issue of "face" in China, as no matter how many qualities the woman possesses, she or her relatives will feel they are losing face if her fiancé does not have a home. It is a fact that many parents of women intending to marry are very proud if their future son-in-law owns a home - just as people in the 1980’s were proud to receive TV sets or bicycles.

Others maintain that - compared with renting a home - owning an apartment can provide an increased sense of stability and security, and this is part of Chinese people’s psychology that continues to this day.

Many people also note that ownership of an apartment includes a household registration license and medical and educations benefits that renting a house cannot deliver. For example, if you buy an apartment, your children are usually automatically admitted into the schools in that area.

Though not everyone thinks like this, it would be careless to criticize the women who do hold such opinions. Rather, I would wonder why housing has become so unaffordable that it has contributed to so many heartbreaking stories of couples separating.