By Duncan Hewitt 

Ke Haiqi is excited about the apartment he bought last year. Located in a modern residential compound in Shanghai, it's a 2,000-square-foot duplex with four bedrooms, two living rooms and no fewer than six big balconies. He has access to a tennis court in the compound and a communal garden. He bought the place because he's planning to get married next year, and is currently rushing to finish renovating it in time for his wedding. Despite being a 40-minute drive
from the city center and the lack of a subway line, Ke paid about $150,000 for the apartment in the midst of China's real-estate boom, borrowing from his brother to make the 40 percent down payment and taking out a loan from a commercial bank. "For most people of my age, their family will pay part of the
cost of buying their home," he says. "Parents feel they should do this on behalf of their children."CC
     Many Chinese of Ke's generation have been chasing the lifestyle of their American counterparts. By opening up the real-estate market 10 years ago, China's leaders triggered an extraordinary boom in housing construction—the cost of the average home in Beijing has risen fourfold in the past eight years. Like many Americans, homeownership has become a significant source of personal wealth. Ke's apartment appreciated 30 percent six months after he bought it. The real-estate boom has gone hand in hand with the rapid growth of the middle class in China. Officially defined as those earning between $8,000 and $70,000 a year, it is a estimated to be 80 million strong. Although that's a small fraction of China's 1.3 billion people, it's growing quickly—15 million were added to the group between 2005 and 2007.
     With growing wealth has come rising expectations. Ke's apartment is a far cry from the traditional house of his childhood, in a small town south of Shanghai, where he shared a bedroom with his two brothers. "Most of the middle class in this city would now expect to live in a residential compound with at least a swimming pool and a nice garden, as well as good transport connections," says Li Cheng, a real-estate consultant in the southern boom town of Shenzhen. The seriously rich, meanwhile, buy themselves suburban villas or new townhouses, or move into luxury apartment compounds with names like "Rich Gate."

     This story first appeared as a Web exclusive Oct. 11, 2008. To read the rest of the story click here.