Returning wealthy individuals develop their hometowns and become rich in the 1980s

Upon hearing Chen Zaixing's words, Li Guohua laughed heartily and nodded with considerable pride, "Our country is currently undergoing economic reforms, isn't it all for the sake of ensuring that the vast majority of our people can afford housing? Don't worry, that day is not far off!"

In Shenzhen in the 1980s, the average living space per person was less than five square meters, which was crowded and cramped. As the special economic zone accelerated its development and construction, the first priority was to improve the housing needs of the people. This was not only being done in Shenzhen, but also in many inland cities that were conducting housing reform pilot programs.

The three men, wearing helmets, entered the construction site. The road beneath their feet was still a newly paved stone surface. Li Guohua walked in front, occasionally turning back to remind Chen Zaixing and Li Renfa to be careful to avoid areas that were easy to slip on.

As Chen Zaixing walked, he looked around. The building, whose main structure had been completed, stood before him. The exterior was covered with beige tiles, which shone with a warm light in the afternoon sun. Window frames had been installed on the windows of each floor, and some had already begun to have glass installed. The distance between the buildings was wide, unlike the old, cramped tenement buildings he had seen in the county town in the past.

"Brother Guohua, how much space is there between these buildings?" Chen Zaixing asked Li Guohua, looking up as he stood between the two buildings.

"Thirty meters!"

Li Guohua also looked up and said to Chen Zaixing, "When the design drawings came out, the Hong Kong businessmen insisted on leaving this much space. At that time, I thought leaving such a large space was a waste, but now it seems that it was really necessary."

"You'll understand when you go up there. The lighting is great, the ventilation is great, it's so much more comfortable than those tenement buildings!"

Chen Zaixing nodded, silently remembering what Li Guohua said. The three of them continued walking forward and entered the building on the right. Chen Zaixing suggested that they take a look at the rooms on the second floor first and try out the elevator. However, they found that although the elevator door frame had been installed, there was a note that read "Under testing, please do not use," so they gave up.

The three pushed open the fire door in the stairwell. The stairwell was still filled with the smell of cement and lime. The walls had been scraped white. With the light coming through the fire door, they could still see clearly, but once the fire door was closed, there were no lights installed in the stairwell. They could only rely on the flashlight in Li Guohua's hand to grope their way upstairs.

"Brother Guohua, why don't you guys install lights in this hallway? It's pitch black. If someone suddenly appears at night, they'll be scared half to death," Chen Zaixing asked Li Guohua, who was leading the way, as they walked.

"There's nothing we can do, Brother Zaixing. We considered all of these things when we were designing the building," Li Guohua said, turning around. "But considering that residents might not consciously turn off the lights when they leave, we had no choice but to not install hallway lights!"

"What the hell? You didn't consider that the residents wouldn't turn off the lights on their own, so you just didn't install them?" Chen Zaixing was speechless. He went up to the second floor and Li Guohua pushed open the door of a room. The walls inside the room had been painted white and the floor had been simply leveled with cement mortar.

Walking into the kitchen, I found that the stove and other fixtures had already been built and decorated with gray-brown tiles. There was also a small sink next to the stove. Looking at the toilet, I found that it was just a squat toilet. The windows and other glass had already been installed, but they were just ordinary aluminum sliding windows.

Many people may not know that when new residential buildings were handed over in the 1980s and 90s, they were not like the completely unfurnished apartments of the 21st century. Instead, residents had to hire workers to plan and decorate the buildings themselves.

In the 1980s and 90s, the national welfare housing allocation system had not been completely abolished. The houses were still built by the government and belonged to the government. The houses could only be handed over when the residents could move in with the keys. Moreover, after the residents moved in, they had to apply for permission to renovate or make other changes. Unlike private houses, they could not be modified however they wanted.

By the 1990s, with the increase in private housing, the original "semi-finished" housing decoration could no longer meet the aesthetic needs of residents. In addition, after the reform and opening up, people's thinking became more open, and those who could afford to buy a house did not care about the money spent on decoration. They were not satisfied with the monotonous public decoration style and wanted to decorate according to their own aesthetics.

As more and more people renovate their homes, developers believe that instead of making residents remove the "semi-finished" renovations and causing waste, it would be better to save some expenses. So they adopted the same idea as Li Guohua: simply don't renovate for you and deliver the house as a bare shell.

In the past, you could simply buy a house and move in immediately, saving a lot on renovation costs. Now, you buy a piece of land but have to pay for bricklayers to build walls, lay tiles, and install plumbing and electrical work yourself, which ironically creates many jobs.

There are pros and cons!

"This is a two-bedroom, one-living room apartment, about 80 square meters," Li Guohua said, leading Chen Zaixing and Li Renfa on a tour of the already renovated house. "This is the living room, these are the two bedrooms, the kitchen is here, and the bathroom is next to it. All the windows face south, so the lighting is good."

Chen Zaixing followed behind and asked Li Guohua, "Brother Guohua, how much do you sell apartments like this for per square meter?"

"It's calculated by area, ranging from 800 to 1,200 yuan per square meter," Li Guohua said with a smile. "It also depends on the floor and location. For example, the ground floor is around 810 yuan per square meter, and the higher the floor, the more expensive it is."

Chen Zaixing quickly calculated in his mind that if the price ranged from 800 to 1200, and he took the middle value of 1000, then an 80-square-meter apartment would cost 80,000 yuan.

The price of 80,000 yuan was a good reference for Chen Zaixing, who was also planning to develop real estate in Nanshan District. Chen Zaixing did not know what the housing prices in China were at that time. The price set by Shenkai Company gave Chen Zaixing a lot of inspiration.

"Eighty thousand for a set, can it be sold?" Li Renfa asked Li Guohua from the side.

Li Guohua laughed after hearing this, "Of course, ordinary people can't afford to buy a house with just their salary, but those who are buying are not ordinary people either. How many Hong Kong businessmen, joint ventures, and bosses from the mainland are there in Shenzhen now! These people have money, but what they lack is good housing. Our project has already attracted inquiries even before it has been launched."

He paused, then added, "Besides, it doesn't have to be paid in full by the individual. You can take out a loan from your employer or the bank and pay in installments. For an 80,000 yuan house, you can put down 20,000 yuan as a down payment and pay the rest slowly, just a few dozen yuan a month. People with government salaries can afford it."

In fact, with the increase in commercial housing, another widely circulated way of buying a house has emerged, namely the "three-thirds system". This means that the employer will convert the original welfare housing allocation into one-third of the purchase price, the individual will contribute another one-third, and then take the welfare housing allocation slip approved by the employer to the bank to obtain a mortgage loan to obtain the remaining one-third of the purchase price, thus completing the full purchase.

The "down payment plus mortgage" home-buying model wouldn't become widespread until the late 1990s.

In the 1980s and 90s, China was transitioning from "welfare housing allocation" to fully commercial housing, and various ways of buying a house emerged. People would borrow money from relatives and friends, or pool their money with colleagues. Some people even took the plunge and used the earliest "personal housing loans"!