Survey: Most home buyers in China unhappy

April 10, 2007 - 0:0
BEIJING (China Daily) -- Buying a house for most of the people is a once in a lifetime decision. Which means people decide to do so only after coming across the ideal house. Surprisingly, eight in every 10 home buyers are unhappy with their houses.

A survey conducted by the Beijing Consumers' Association (BCA) recently shows about 80 percent of the 2,315 respondents in 23 residential complexes of Beijing are dissatisfied with the soaring house prices.

They think the reasonable price in Beijing should be between 3,000 yuan ($388) and 7,000 yuan ($906) per square meter.

The quality of the buildings, the surrounding environment and traffic and property management are the other factors that play a role in people's decision to buy a house.

The landscapes in the residential areas are a source of unhappiness for 43.2 percent of the respondents, and about one-third say they were "bluffed" into buying "third grade" houses.

And more than half are not satisfied with the sport and entertainment facilities in their residential complexes and neighborhoods.

Property management in the buildings, 56.5 percent of the respondents say, is way below standard compared to the high fee charged by the complexes.

"I checked more than 50 residential complexes in over 30 cities in China and found that almost 95 percent of the new designs proposed last year had high construction standards. But more than half of the finished buildings didn't meet that standard," said Zhou Leijian, an expert from Ministry of Construction.

"Therefore, we should pay more attention to the process of construction, and guarantee the quality of building materials to have high quality houses that satisfy the consumers," Zhou said.