Housing: what $150,000 gets you in China

(Ecns.cn)--One million yuan (or about US$150,000) can get you a house with three bedrooms and three bathrooms in Chile or an apartment with two bedrooms and two bathrooms in downtown Moscow. But in the Chinese real estate world, the options are less glamorous.

Although China has taken measures to cool its heated property market since May 2010, the results in most cities have not met government expectations, as property prices continue to rise and those who hope to buy homes are often forced to wait.

In the country's first-tier cities like Beijing and Shanghai, where the average price for a square meter of land is over 20,000 yuan (US$3,165), one million yuan is far from sufficient to buy a new two-bedroom house. In second-tier cities, the situation is somewhat better, but still far from satisfactory.

In Nanjing, the capital of east China's Jiangsu Province where the average land price is 12,000 yuan (US$1,899) per square meter, people with one million yuan can buy an 80 to 90 square meter home. However, the house will not be new or in very good condition.

While in Jinan, the capital of neighboring Shandong Province, a house of 100 square meters may be affordable for one who has one million yuan to spend, it will not be located downtown or have convenient access to public transportation.

For Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province, where the price of land varies in accordance to location and the most expensive price is 8,200 yuan (US$1,297) per square meter, a house with three bedrooms can be acquired with relative ease.

In Xi'an and Wuhan, the capitals of Shaanxi Province and Hubei Province in central China, where the average land price exceeds 7,000 yuan (US$1,107), buying a house with three bedrooms in a downtown area with one million yuan is also realistic.

In Chongqing, Lanzhou, Shenyang and Changsha, one million yuan can fetch a house of about 150 square meters in a downtown area, since average land prices in these cities are around 6,000 yuan (US$949) per square meter.

The Beijing government announced Thursday that the city will restrict property purchases and build more government subsidized housing in 2012 to continue cooling the property market. Only time will tell if the policy is effective at getting the real estate market under control.