> China has a very large rural, poor population while the large cities have grown significantly more affluent with prices and salaries to match. What you've sa

> China has a very large rural, poor population while the large cities have grown significantly more affluent with prices and salaries to match. What you've said is true, but that doesn't mean the problem in big Chinese city is anywhere easier - the housing price is beyond afforable even for the affluent salaries. In my experience, large cities in China are more like Hong Kong where people have to work over 50 years to afford a house rather than 27 years. I live in Beijing, and the rent I pay is around $1100 per month, but the valuation of the house is conveniently around $1.1m - it's 1k months or 83 years. As a senior software engineer, I earn a pretty decent income but it would still cost me to work several decades to buy that. As another example for your reference, a colleague of mine - he saved money for quite some years by renting basement and spend nothing other than necessities, bought an 60m² old khrushchyovka (that old poor commie block the western world always laughing at) for around $1m. His story is very typical in China: even though he is that hardworking, he didn't afford it on it's own, but also plus his wife and 4 of their in-laws (it's so common that in China we call it "drain 6 pockets").