The next day.
Amidst much anticipation: Junfuting officially opened for sale...
On the same day, the Universal Center announced that all customers who made a purchase that day could participate in a golden egg smashing activity, with items such as refrigerators, televisions, and washing machines inside.
A great war is about to break out!
The center of the world.
It was still bustling with people and incredibly lively.
Inside the show flat.
A salesperson was showing a man and a woman around: "Mr. Yu, Ms. Da Mei! Next, we'll be looking at a standard, spacious two-bedroom apartment with good ventilation, and two elevators serving three units per floor!"
The man and woman were Yu Lin and his girlfriend. They had already bought a second-hand house, but who would have thought that You Real Estate would run into trouble one after another, and eventually the entire You Real Estate was even banned. Fortunately, the government stepped in and returned their down payment. Although they still lost about 20,000 yuan, at least they didn't lose everything. After much persuasion, Yu Lin reconciled with Da Mei. But this time, Da Mei was extremely resistant to second-hand houses and insisted that her wedding house must be a new house, not a second-hand one. So the two of them came to look at various new properties, and Huanyu Center was naturally the first one they visited.
The salesperson is introducing the apartment: "The one you're looking at now is a standard two-bedroom layout: two bedrooms and one living room, with excellent ventilation (H-shaped), good natural light..."
Listening to the salesperson's introduction, Yu Lin and Da Mei were both a little tempted. In the north, this layout of two bedrooms with a bathroom in between, with a large living room facing a large kitchen, is absolutely standard and is something that most customers would like at first glance.
Yu Lin and Da Mei were no exception and immediately took a liking to it.
Yu Lin: "What is the area of this house?"
Salesperson: "Building area: 106 square meters, usable area: 65 square meters! Kitchen and airy balcony included! Total usable area: 67 square meters."
Hear this.
Yu Lin and Da Mei weren't surprised!
A 100-square-meter house? 40 square meters of shared area? Outrageous! Very outrageous? But it's perfectly normal in Songjiang. The most common shared area coefficients are: 1.46 for multi-story buildings and 1.59 for high-rise buildings. You divide the building area by this number to get a rough estimate of the usable area. The coefficient will increase if there are many elevators and an elevator lobby in a high-rise building.
For buildings like the Huanyu Center with two elevators serving three households, a coefficient of 1.6 or higher is quite normal.
Yu Lin: "How much is this house?"
Salesperson: "What floor do you want to buy? Let me calculate the price of a normal floor for you first."
It only takes a minute or two.
The salesperson said, "Our Building 6 is a standard building with no extra charge, and it has a total of 32 floors! If you want to buy a unit on floors 11 to 28, this type of unit costs 901,000 per square meter. If you buy a unit on floors below the tenth floor, it will be 100 yuan cheaper per square meter for each floor below that, and the same applies to floors above the 28th floor!"
Nine hundred thousand!
Yu Lin nodded to himself: This amount of money is within their means. The down payment is 200,000, the loan is 700,000, the loan term is 30 years, and the monthly repayment is more than 4,000. The two of them can barely afford it with their salaries.
Da Mei then asked, "Do you have any three-bedroom apartments?"
Salesperson: "Yes! I'll take you to see it right away..."
The World Center is a pre-sale property. The building is still under construction and has not yet been topped out. Therefore, the showrooms shown to them are all located next to each other in the sales office.
Go outside!
Change rooms and you get a three-bedroom model apartment:
"Mr. Yu, Ms. Da Mei! This is the three-bedroom model apartment. It still has a north-south facing layout, which is no different from the two-bedroom apartment. The only difference is that there is an additional bedroom facing south from the living room. The total building area is 130 square meters! The interior area is 83 square meters, and the price is 1,105,000!"
Three bedrooms!
Da Mei's gaze towards the house became noticeably more eager; she seemed to like it more than when she looked at the two-bedroom apartment.
Yu Lin smiled bitterly: "Da Mei, this is over budget? Nine hundred thousand is already more than our initial budget, but 1.1 million is even more. We'll have to pay more than five thousand in loan payments every month. With our combined monthly salary of seven thousand, we simply can't afford it. We'll have to pay nearly four thousand in loan payments every month, so we'll only have three thousand left for our daily expenses."
(Here's a side note: In 2014, people were generally quite realistic about mortgage payments. It was common for someone with a monthly income of 5,000 to have mortgage payments of over 3,000. This was because many people believed that their income would continue to rise, and that housing prices would continue to rise. Moreover, many people believed that without pressure, there would be no motivation.)
Da Mei said, "Honey, although this is over budget, it's a three-bedroom apartment! Three bedrooms! When we get married and have kids, we'll definitely have the grandparents come to help take care of the children, and three bedrooms will be enough space. Don't you think so? Otherwise, how can we live comfortably in a two-bedroom apartment? And when the kids get older, won't they sleep in separate rooms? Will the grandparents sleep in the living room? Or will the kids sleep in the living room? They won't have any privacy at all..."
Yu Lin was also tempted: "But this loan..."
Da Mei: "Taking a bigger loan isn't a big deal! At worst, we can work overtime and earn more money later. Pressure is motivation, and motivation leads to more money. After all, buying a house is a lifelong commitment: only by being comfortable now can we be comfortable later. Three bedrooms! The kids will have one room, the two of us will have one room, and the elderly will have one room—life will be wonderful...don't you think...that's how I'll ask my family to contribute 100,000 for the down payment..."
As Da Mei spoke of her wonderful future, Yu Lin also felt a surge of anticipation, and gritted his teeth:
"Okay! I'll borrow as much as possible!"
Yu Lin asked the salesperson, "Um, can we negotiate the price?"
Salesperson: "I'm sorry! My price is already very favorable, but if you can buy today, you can smash an egg, which contains gifts such as a refrigerator and a TV."
Da Mei: "Oh, I see... Let's go, honey. I heard that Heilong Group's Junfuting project is opening today. Let's go check it out..."
He then pulled Yu Lin away.
The salesperson said, "Wait a minute, if you two can buy it today, I can apply for a discount of 5,000 yuan for you, making the total price 1.1 million yuan!"
Yu Lin was so excited that he was about to agree.
Da Mei, however, insisted, "Your price is quite reasonable, but we plan to check out Junfuting first..."
The salesperson didn't try to lower the price further, but said, "You can go! But the price I just offered was because of your sincerity. I can't guarantee that you'll still have a spot if you come back. Besides, Huanyu Group's properties are extremely popular right now. You saw how many people were signing contracts. If you buy now, I can still help you get a good floor, but if you delay, you might only be able to buy a lower floor when you come back..."
Da Mei: "Thank you, let's go take a look first..."
Yu Lin kept turning back to look at himself as he took a step.
The salesperson scoffed, "Don't bother looking, there are no more discounts..."
After leaving the sales office.
Yu Lin: "Why did you come out? That apartment was so nice, they even lowered the price! And didn't they say anything about not being able to get a good floor if we came back..."
Da Mei: "Let's go to the Jun Mansion!"
Yu Lin: "You're really going..."
Da Mei: "Aren't you interested in their 'epoch-making' claims...?"