China's housing market slumps, career prospects for millions of young people worried

China's real estate market has continued to decline in recent years. In addition to those who bought unfinished properties at a high price, there may also be millions of young people facing career difficulties.

Relevant reports from Bloomberg pointed out that among them are real estate managers of the younger generation who have witnessed China’s real estate boom, and many of them are currently working part-time. And 30-year-old Ivy Zhang (transliteration) is one of them.

Zhang Aiwei joined Country Garden, one of the largest real estate companies, right after graduating from college in 2016. She worked until 11 o'clock every night. Soon she was transferred to a larger city and won the title of "Sales Champion". According to her own statistics, she helped Country Garden sell buildings with a total price of 1 billion yuan. Since China's real estate market was booming at the time, real estate was seen as a tool for accumulating wealth, insurance and retirement funds. Zhang Aiwei made a lot of money, so much money that he didn’t need to think about it. “A bank account is just a bunch of numbers,” she told Bloomberg.

However, the good times did not last long. Although Chinese President Xi Jinping has long warned that "houses are for living in, not for speculation," before the end of 2021, Chinese buildings are still being sold faster than they are built, and real estate developers have accumulated a lot of debt in order to expand their scale. After that, the authorities suddenly tightened lending and the housing market collapsed. Many people buying houses cannot wait until their houses are completed, and protests have occurred in many places in China.

Reports pointed out that after the collapse of China's real estate market, a group of young real estate agents who originally thought they could successfully advance to the wealthy middle class suddenly fell into trouble. According to statistics from the real estate research organization "Feasibility Research Think Tank", in the three years before 2023, China's real estate development employees have lost about 500,000 people. This statistic does not include related industry figures, such as construction and marketing.

Zhang Aiwei told Bloomberg that in order to make a living and pay bills, she now sells health care products on social media platforms, but she only sells three products a month and her income is not as good as before. She could earn hundreds of thousands of yuan a year from selling houses in the past. The days are completely incomparable.

The report said that although many real estate managers are having a hard time now, many analysts believe that China's housing market has not yet hit bottom. According to Bloomberg Economics, China’s housing market will further shrink to 16% of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2026, significantly lower than the previous high of 25%.