Chinese Weddings Fuel Real Estate Boom

Newlyweds help boost property prices by 80%
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 1, 2009 10:04 AM CST
Chinese Weddings Fuel Real Estate Boom
Wu Zun, left front, directs the arrangement of his bride Xie Qiyun's wedding gown in front of a hotel in Guangzhou, China last year.   (AP Photo/Xinhua, Tan Qingju)

The biggest wedding boom in history is helping power China's economic growth and may push its housing market into dangerously overinflated territory. Children of China's baby boomers are coming of age in the tens of millions, and as coddled only-children who did not inherit their parents' thrift, are throwing lavish ceremonies, fueling a wedding industry bigger than the GDP of many smaller nations.

"The global financial crisis hit a lot of industries: exporters, banks, insurance. But not only was the wedding industry not affected, it has had even stronger growth over the past year," the head of an industry committee tells Reuters. All those newlyweds buying homes has helped push property prices up more than 80% over the last year and analysts warn that a crash is likely when the current demographic bulge of people in their thirties passes.
(More China stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X