Many young couples are seeking larger homes as the one-child policy is lifted. (Photo : Getty Images)
Many young couples are looking for bigger homes as the one-child policy was scrapped and replaced by the two-child policy.
The real estate market revealed that there was an increase in purchases of apartments exceeding 300 square meters in area. There were about 545 units sold off such as floor area in Beijing in the first half of the year.
This uptake in the demand also caused prices to rise.
Guo Yi, marketing director of real estate consultancy Yahao, said, "The shrinking inventory of large houses up for sale in the capital tends to further push up their price."
The number of homes with a floor space of over 300 sqm declined 16 percent to 1,617 units till late August from that of last year. There are only 670 flats around the Fourth Ring Road in Beijing with large floor spaces.
According to Wang Fang, deputy general manager of China SCE Property Holdings Limited's Beijing branch, apartment buildings which are closer to educational facilities is being sold fast.
"Those customers have a very clear demand: a quality home with good educational resources," he said.
The new policy is predicted to bring in an increase of 2.36 million new births according to the Beijing Municipal Commission of Health and Family Planning.
The end of the one-child policy was brought upon the population dilemma of the country's growing number of senior citizens and a shrinking capable workforce. The two-child policy only took this year.
The Communist Party released a statement last year that said, "The change of policy is intended to balance population development and address the challenge of an aging population."
Stuart Gietel-Basten, a University of Oxford demographer has been criticizing the policy for years.
He said, "I'm shaking, to be honest. It's one of those things that you have been working on and saying for years and recommending they should do something and it finally happened. It's just a bit of a shock."
