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Women and the property market 女性和房地产市场 Married to the mortgage 下嫁房贷 Are high house prices hurting women more than men? 高房价是否让女性比男性更受伤? Jul 13th 2013 | BEIJING |From the print edition  CHINA’s communists attacked many bourgeois institutions after taking power in 1949. But marriage was not one of them. On the contrary, they enacted a marriage law in 1950, four years before they introduced a constitution. The pressure to marry remains heavy in today’s China, where almost 80% of adults have tied the knot at some point, compared with only 68% in America. But today, in contrast to the 1950s, marriage is bound up with another bourgeois institution: property. 共产Party在1949建国以来攻击过许多资产阶级的习惯。但婚姻不在之列，相反，他们在1950年就颁布了婚姻法。直到今天，对于中国人来说，结婚的 压力依然很重，大约80%的成年人会在人生中的某一个时刻喜结连理，而相比之下美国仅有68%的人口会这样做。与1950年代不同的是，今天的婚姻和另外 一个资产阶级的产物联系在了一起：不动产。 In China mortgages often precede marriages. According to popular belief, if a man and his family cannot buy property he will struggle to find a bride. In choosing a husband, three-quarters of women consider his ability to provide a home, according to a recent survey of young people in China’s coastal cities by Horizon China, a Beijing-based market-research firm. Even if a woman herself dismisses this criterion, her family and friends, not to mention the country’s estate agents, will not let her forget it. 在中国，婚姻未动，按揭先行。在大众的观念中，如果一个男性和他的家庭无法购买房产，他将很难找到一个妻子。在选择丈夫的时候，四分之三的女性会考虑潜在 对象是否有能力提供一个固定的住所，这个结论是根据一家北京的市场调查公司Horizon China最近以沿海城市年轻群体为对象进行的调查数据得出的。即使一个女性自己并不在意这个条件，她的家庭和朋友，更别提这个神奇国度里的房地产代理 们，也不会放过她的。 “Naked marriages”, as property-less ones are known, are endorsed by increasing numbers of young people. But as they get older, their attitudes may regress faster than society’s progress. One 28-year-old Beijing woman married her husband after falling in love with him at college. But “if you introduced a man to me now, and he couldn’t afford a home, I wouldn’t marry him,” she says. “I need to be more realistic. I’m not a 20-year-old girl.” 裸婚，是对那些无房产条件下结婚的称呼，这个概念正在被越来越多的年轻人接受。但当他们的年龄增长，他们态度转变的速度超过了社会进步的速度。一个28岁 的北京女青年与大学时期陷入热恋的男朋友结婚了。但“如果你现在介绍一个男朋友给我，而他无法有经济实力买下一套房子，我不会嫁给他的。”她说：“我现在 需要更现实一些，我已经不再是一个20岁的女生了。”  Some economists argue that competition for brides in China’s marriage “market” helps explain the punishingly high prices in its property market. Houses are least affordable in those parts of China where men most outnumber women, argue Shang-jin Wei of Columbia University, Xiaobo Zhang of the International Food Policy Research Institute and Yin Liu of Tsinghua University (see chart). 有些经济学家认为在婚姻市场上对于女性资源的争夺解释了为什么房地产市场的价格一直居高不下。在中国男女比例最为失调的城市，房价的难以承受程度也是最高 的。提出这一观点的是哥伦比亚大学的Shang-jin Wei，国际食品政策调查机构的Xiaobo Zhang和清华大学的Yin Liu。（见图表） Men (and their families) splash out on property to improve their position in the marriage queue. But that merely forces other men to spend more in response. Unmarried men are locked in a Darwinian race, the economists argue. Overpriced homes are like the extravagant plumage of a peacock, an eye-catching encumbrance that only the most resourceful males can put on display. 男青年（以及他们的家庭）在房地产上一掷千金来提升他们在婚姻市场上的竞争力，但这样的行为仅仅迫使其他男性花更高的价格来进行竞争。经济学家认为，未婚 的男性被迫参与这种优胜劣汰的竞争。那些高价的房子就像是孔雀过分华丽的尾屏，是一个仅有少数资源丰富的男性才能拥有的引人注目的拖油瓶。 The burden of home-buying thus falls heavily on unmarried men. But it is no longer confined to them. Women and their families now contribute to their partner’s home purchases in 70% of cases, according to Horizon China’s research. They help out both because they must—couples have to pool their resources to afford coastal China’s pricey homes—and because they can. Young women are earning more and receiving more help from their parents, for whom they are often now the only child. 于是买房的担子就狠狠的落在了那些未婚的男青年身上。但这个担子现在已经不再是由他们来独自挑起了。女青年和他们的家庭在70%的案例中也对买房做出了贡 献，根据Horizon China做的调查来看。他们开始帮忙是因为沿海城市的房价实在太高以至于他们需要共同承担买房的花销，并且他们也有这个能力来承担。年轻的女性赚的更 多，也从家里获得更多的帮助，因为她们现在多是家里的独生女。 The machismo of mortgages 房贷的男子气概 Although most women now contribute to the purchase of the home, only 30% of married women add their name to the title certificate, according to Horizon China’s research. Leta Hong Fincher, a sociologist at Tsinghua University, worries that “many Chinese women are shut out of what may be the biggest accumulation of residential wealth in history.” 虽然大多数女性也在买房方面做出了贡献，只有30%的已婚女性在房产证上加上了自己的名字，结论同样是来自Horizon China进行的调查。清华大学的社会学学者 Leta Hong Gincher担忧，许多中国女性在可能已经被史上最庞大的房产财富积累排除在外了。 More women are trying to add their name to this wealth. Of those married after 2006, 37% have succeeded. Their efforts gained new urgency in 2011 when the Supreme Court clarified the divorce rules. Each party, it said, would keep the property registered in their name, after compensating their ex for any contributions to the mortgage. 更多的女性正在尝试把她们的名字加在房产证上。2006年以后结婚的女青年中，37%成功的坐到了这一点。这种努力在2011年最高法院厘清新的离婚条例以后显得更为紧迫。条例中显示，双方在补偿对方付出的房贷后，将保留各自名下的房产。 But joint registration of property faces bureaucratic and social obstacles. One woman interviewed by Ms Hong Fincher contributed heavily to the down-payment on a home and insisted on registering it in both names. But her boyfriend’s mother begged her to drop her demand, pointing out that the bride-to-be outearned him and was more likely to leave him than vice versa. Joint-ownership would be a further blow to his pride. 但“双方共同拥有房产”的房产登记正在面临政府和社会的阻碍。一位在房贷中付了很大一部分首付的受访女性坚持将房产登记在双方名下，但她男朋友的母亲求她 不要这么做，因为她这个未婚妻收入比丈夫高，因此更有可能离开她的丈夫而非相反。共同拥有这套房产会打击她丈夫的自尊心。 In principle, the law entitles a divorced wife to compensation for her mortgage contributions, even if the family home was not registered in her name. But women do not always document their home payments. And even if they pay nothing towards a mortgage, they may still pay a lot towards other household expenses, Ms Hong Fincher points out. In many cases, the man can afford the mortgage only because the woman takes care of the fittings, furnishings and many other expenses. 在原则上，法律赋予一个离婚的女性追索赔偿的权利，赔偿的部分为当时在房贷中贡献的部分，即使是在房产没有注册在她名下的情况下。但女性并不都会记录自己 在房贷中付出了多少钱。即使他们没有付一分钱，她们可能也承担了很多其它的家庭开销，洪女士指出了这个可能性。在很多案例中，男性之所以可以付的起房贷是 因为女性支付了大部分其它的家庭开销。 “Home ownership defines masculinity,” Ms Hong Fincher says. Often a couple’s finances are arranged so that the husband can take all the pride of owning the home, even if, in reality, his wife is jointly supporting the household. A dutiful wife may feel obliged to bolster his pretence. In China, macho posturing is another bubble that has yet to burst. “拥有房产决定了一个人的男子气概，”洪女士如是说。一对儿夫妻之间通常会（让女性支付其它家庭开销）以使得男方能够付得起房贷，这样男方在家庭中才能更 有尊严，即便是在现实情况中其实是女方支撑着整个家庭的经济来源。一个尽职的妻子会感觉制造这样的假象是一种义务，而保持男子气概姿态的习惯是另一个等待 破裂的泡沫。 From the print edition: China |
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