Mo money Mo problems: Nobel winner can't afford Beijing apartment
Staff Reporter 2012-10-16 08:45
US$1.2 million doesn't get you much in Beijing these days. Mo Yan could be based in rural Shandong a while longer. (Photo/Xinhua)
Mo Yan, the winner of this year's Nobel prize for literature, said that even with his prize money of US$1.2 million, he could only afford a 120-square-meter apartment in Beijing.
In an interview with the state newswire Xinhua, Mo said he would quite like to buy a house in Beijing with his windfall, though given that current property prices are more than 50,000 yuan (US$7,975) per square meter, he would be unlikely to be able to afford anything more than a modest apartment outside the downtown area.
The online version of Guangzhou's 21st Century Business Herald reported that many other internet users identify with Mo's feeling of helplessness at the exorbitant prices of houses in Beijing. Mo's prize money could be used to buy at least five houses in foreign countries, they said.
One development project in Beijing is offering apartments at 120,000 yuan (US$19,150) per square meter, meaning Mo's money would only buy an apartment 60 square meters in size.
To offer a contrast with a bygone age, the report also said that Lu Xun, the father of modern Chinese literature, in 1919 bought a traditional house in Beijing for 3,675 yuan (US$585) together with his younger brother Zhou Zuoren. In 1924, Lu bought another house for less than 1,000 yuan (US$160).
The extortionate house prices exist despite the hefty government restrictions placed on purchases of residential properties from 2010 to cool down the country's overheating realty market.
Under the restrictions, only individuals who have household registrations in the city or have worked and paid taxes in the city for more than five years are eligible to buy a house in Beijing.
