Location, Location and Location
Home Prices Are Higher Near Prestigious Schools
It’s the same, here in Singapore as in China. Parents pay handsomely to buy a home near a famous school just to get priority of school admission.
The importance of finding a proper environment for raising children:
孟母三遷 - Mencius's mother, three moves.
Legend has it that Mencius's mother, Chang-shih moved house three times on account of her concern for Mencius.
At first they lived by a cemetery, where the mother found her son imitating the paid mourners in funeral processions. “This is no place for my son,” so she moved.
The next house was near a market in the town. There the boy began to imitate the ways and antics of the merchants who were despised in early China. This broke the mother’s heart and she moved again.
They moved this time to a house next to a public school. Inspired by the scholars and students, Mencius began to emulate the proper conduct and manners by which the scholars were taught. His mother decided to remain, and Mencius became a scholar.
Back to modern China
It is for sale, nearly all of $600,000 for a 13 sq m room down a ramshackle alleyway piled chock full with rubbish. There is no running water or toilet. Only a cramped room few wealthy Chinese would deign to occupy. But the space has one grace-saving feature that makes it spectacularly desirable: ownership entitles the buyer's child to a place in Huangchenggen Primary School nearby, deemed as one of the best in the People's Republic of China.
The asking price of 3.8 million yuan or nearly $4,200 psf is insane and comparable to Monaco real estate prices in the Mediterranean. But the room is going to move fast. Two adjacent rooms have already been sold.
China’s rich will pay astronomic prices to ensure their children get into the best schools.
The mindset is the result of a system that emphasizes that ‘children must win from the starting line’.
Chinese parents invest about two-thirds of their income in their child's education. Since they only have one child, they put everything into them.
Only owning guarantees a spot at the exclusive schools, not renting.
In China, educational resources are unbalanced. The best schools are increasingly reserved for China's wealthy. The costs are seen to be worth it.