Like many parents in Beijing, Zhao Hui is keen to ensure that his daughter gets the best possible education, and now that she has turned 12 and is entering the most competitive school years, he is planning to move house.

He likes his current apartment in the outer suburb of Tongzhou, which he decorated himself according to his own design, but he wants to move to a more central district where the schools are better.

“I plan to buy a suitable home in Dongcheng district, with an area similar to my current living space, around 80 square metres with two bedrooms and one livingroom, meeting everyone’s basic needs. The community should be pleasant, and the main requirement is that the surrounding facilities are good, as this would make life more convenient for both myself and my family,” he says.

Property in Dongcheng is more expensive, so Zhao is expecting to pay about RMB8 million (€960,000) for his new place, RMB2 million more than he is asking for his current apartment. His problem is that prices in Beijing’s suburbs are falling faster than in the centre and although he is looking for RMB 6 million, the best offer he has received is RMB5.1 million.

“In the current market, to be honest, everyone is quite competitive,” he says. “If it takes too long to sell, my parents’ house is near where I want to move to and we can temporarily stay with them. But you also know that after all, the elderly don’t want to live with us, and we also don’t want to live with them.

“Ideally, I would sell my existing house first and then buy a new one.