Yi Xianrong, a real-estate expert with the Institute of Finance and Banking of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, attributed the high prices to easy credit, property speculation and local government's lucrative land sales.

High housing prices are causing widespread grudge and depression among millions of young Chinese, who believe the prices are manipulated.

The intensity of this sentiment was revealed in "Dwelling Narrowness," a Chinese TV drama put on in 2009, in which one of the main characters becomes the mistress of a government official who helps repay her elder sister's mortgage.

The story follows the trials of two young sisters who struggle to buy affordable apartments in an unnamed big city, believed to resemble Shanghai, where house prices have soared beyond the lifetime disposable income of most wage-earners.

The 35-episode series had touched a raw nerve in its audience, who sympathize with the characters' moral and financial struggles.

"They epitomize a large group of urban young people tormented by material desire and anxiety in daily life," said Zhang Yiwu, a professor with the Peking University. "It's just like snails carrying a heavy shell."

But he added the urgency of young Chinese to be house-owners right after graduation is unrealistic and renting is a normal part of life that most young people in developed countries have to go through.

"On the one hand, the government should provide more affordable housing, but on the other hand the young people have to realize owning an apartment does take years of hard work," he said.

A native from Beijing's neighboring Hebei Province, 23-year-old Cai Yingfei, who now works in Beijing at a British supermarket company, seems not so eager to buy herself an apartment right now.

She lives with four other girls in a rented apartment, which costs one third of her 3,000-yuan monthly income.

"I don't expect to have my own house here in a few years. I set a goal of owning an apartment in ten years and I am working hard on it," she said.

In her rented small apartment, the sitting room was converted into bedroom and the master bedroom divided by a dry wall into two rooms to lower individual rent.

Zhang Rui enjoyed the sense of belonging after he and his wife poured all their savings of seven years into their two-bedroom apartment in Shanghai.

"The apartment is our shelter that gives me peace and comfort after a long hard day. I no longer worry about being driven out by my landlord and moving to another rented house in a rainy day, like what happened two years ago when I just got married," he said.

But as half of their 15,000-yuan income is spent on mortgage repayment, the couple face great financial pressure which they say is the main reason why they are still childless.

"We would lose everything if either one of us is laid off. We won't have a baby until we are better off financially," he said.

Aware of the high prices are eroding house-owning dreams of the young, the government said it would curb the rocketing development of the housing market and provided more affordable housing.

Many experts said the boom will continue as long as easy credit, land sales, and speculation are still around.

"I don't think young Chinese born in the 1980s will become a generation of 'mortgage slaves.' Their hard work will eventually repay them with an apartment," said Professor Zhang.

"If you want to have your own apartment sooner, move to smaller cities. The housing prices there are relatively in line with average income. It's less competitive there," he said.

About to leave Beijing where his dream started, Xue's feelings were mixed.

"I can finally give my family an apartment, but personally I think it is a setback in my lifetime," he said, lowering his head and staring at the ground.

(Xinhua News Agency January 3, 2010)