Choosing Not to Buy a School District House, Living in a Five-star Hotel With My Daughter, Saves a Significant Amount of Money

Hotel Illustration: A view of the outdoor pool at Hilton Garden Inn (Clear Lake/NASA). (Lu Xi / Dajiyuan)

[People News] The Chinese Communist Party controls all national resources and employs favouritism to create disparities between urban and rural areas. In cities, quality educational resources are concentrated in specific regions, resulting in housing prices in these areas being significantly higher than in others. Beijing serves as a prime example, where the best educational resources are consistently found in the Dongcheng, Xicheng, and Haidian districts, collectively referred to as the 'East-West Sea.' Among these, Xicheng District offers relatively balanced teaching quality, and despite its outrageous housing prices, it remains highly sought after by parents. Reports have indicated that in 2021, a mere 10-square-meter apartment in Xicheng District had a staggering unit price of 450,000 RMB per square meter. In reality, many school districts housed in Xicheng District have unit prices that reach tens of millions of RMB. The Communist Party takes advantage of parents' focus on education to drive up housing prices in certain areas, making it easier to exploit them financially. However, the traditional concept of a 'school district house' has shifted from being a scarce asset to a high-risk liability. A single mother in Beijing has recognised the Communist Party's scheme and has boldly opted for an extreme 'rental lifestyle,' choosing to stay in a five-star hotel rather than invest in old, rundown school district houses.

Living in a five-star hotel for three years saves millions

According to a recent report from 'Daily People' titled 'In Beijing, opting not to buy a school district house, living in a five-star hotel with my daughter for school,' a single mother in Beijing has decided against purchasing a school district house. Instead, she resides in a five-star hotel located in the East Second Ring with her elementary school daughter, Beibei, checking in on Monday and checking out on Friday.

Beibei has been living in a hotel to attend school since the first grade. She checks in with her suitcase on Mondays and checks out to return home on Fridays. Now in the third grade, this marks the third year of her hotel schooling.

Having spent a considerable amount of time in a hotel, Beibei's mother has shared various details, including some everyday nuances. She noted that living in a five-star hotel offers numerous perks that help her save a significant amount of money. For example, dining at the hotel restaurant for breakfast and lunch has saved her 45,000 yuan over three years; the imported capsule coffee in the room is available for unlimited consumption, and if she spends 2,500 yuan a year on coffee, that totals 7,500 yuan over three years. Furthermore, the hotel provides a dedicated housekeeping butler, a swimming pool, and a gym, with a couple's swimming and fitness card costing 15,000 yuan per year, resulting in a total savings of 45,000 yuan over three years. Parking in the city centre costs 10 yuan per hour with no cap, but hotel guests can park temporarily for free, saving her 54,000 yuan over three years...

This single mother mentioned that compared to purchasing a home in a school district for her child's commute, living in a five-star hotel for these three years has saved her approximately 400,000 yuan.

She also described her decision-making process in choosing to live in a hotel after weighing the options of buying versus renting a home. She stated, "Living in a hotel for school is a choice I calculated meticulously." If she were to buy a home, she estimated that to secure a property in a school district while maintaining her quality of life, given Beijing's housing prices, she would need at least 20 million yuan. Based on recent real estate market trends, she calculated that she could potentially incur losses of several hundred thousand yuan each year.

She stated that, in general, most parents opt to buy or rent homes near schools. "My own house is in Tongzhou, and its price has decreased somewhat. If I want to switch to a school district home, the price per square meter is 130,000 yuan, which is a 100,000 yuan difference compared to Tongzhou. Even if housing prices stay the same, I would still be 'losing' 1 million yuan each year. When you factor in property fees, heating, and various other expenses, it all becomes very costly. There's also the risk of price declines; if I had purchased a house three years ago, I would have lost over a million yuan by now, and in a few years, I could potentially lose even more. When you do the math, not buying a house means I've saved several million yuan over the past three years, which is no exaggeration."

Fertility Rate Plummets: "Old, Broken, Small Houses Lack Investment Value"

For a long time, school district homes in China's major cities have been in high demand, mainly due to the scarcity and uneven distribution of quality educational resources. Chinese parents place immense importance on their children's education, willing to invest considerable time and money to ensure their children can attend a good school. School district homes act as the 'gateway' to access quality schools, embodying parents' sincere hopes for their children's futures.

However, as the birth rate continues to decline, the number of students enrolling in the future is expected to decrease significantly, which will profoundly affect the supply and demand dynamics of educational resources. With a shrinking student population, competition among schools will intensify. To attract students, schools may implement various strategies to improve their teaching quality and competitiveness. Some schools that previously had average teaching standards may increase their investment in developing a strong teaching staff, recruit outstanding teachers, and enhance their teaching facilities, thereby narrowing the gap with prestigious schools.

In light of the ongoing decline in China's birth rate, Bei Bei's mother believes that old and dilapidated properties lack investment value. She mentioned that Bei Bei is currently in the third grade, with 44 students in her class, while this year's first grade at their school has only 25 students.

China's birth rate began to decline in 2017, and from 2018 onwards, the number of births plummeted, dropping by over two million that year. This trend has continued, and by 2023, the birth population had fallen to just 9.02 million. The number of children enrolled in kindergartens first showed negative growth in 2021, leading to a wave of kindergarten closures, and in 2024, a similar trend is expected with elementary school closures.

In May of this year, the National Bureau of Statistics of China released two sets of alarming data. In 2024, the number of children in kindergartens decreased by 5.09 million compared to the previous year, while the number of elementary school students nationwide fell by 2.516 million. This significant year-on-year decline in elementary school enrollment has been described as a 'cliff-like drop.' The underlying cause of this phenomenon is the ongoing sharp decline in the birth population.

Children born in 2018 will enter elementary school in 2024, which accounts for the significant drop in the number of elementary school students that year. As birth rates continue to decline, the number of elementary school students is expected to decrease annually in the coming years, making this trend hard to reverse.

The '21st Century Business Herald' reports that several districts in Beijing have seen a decline in elementary school enrollments. In 2024, Haidian District is projected to have 34,000 fewer elementary school students, while Xicheng will see a reduction of 20,000. The situation in Shenzhen is more complicated; the transition from primary to junior high school remains highly competitive, which has increased demand for housing in school districts. However, at the elementary and kindergarten levels, there is already a trend of declining enrollment points in 2024, with an increasing number of schools, including some prestigious ones, starting to adopt policies that allow enrollment based on rental agreements.

Moreover, population mobility and urbanisation are crucial factors influencing the value of school district housing. Historically, a large influx of people from rural areas and small cities to large cities has led to a steady increase in urban populations and a rising demand for educational resources. To ensure their children receive quality education in large cities, many families opt to buy homes in school districts, which has contributed to the rising prices of school district housing. However, with declining birth rates and shifts in population structure, the trend of population mobility may also change.