I settled down in Beijing last year, in a tiny flat I call "home." I rent it. It's pretty comfortable, and I have even managed to take up a new hobby - reading about the housing market.

Wandering around property forums has become a special pleasure of mine, since there are always hundreds of experts making predictions and thousands more angry people complaining. I usually just laugh and keep my mouth shut.

My life would be pretty sweet except that my mother keeps badgering me with suggestions. Such as: "How about we give you some money for the down payment, and then you can handle the monthly mortgage payments yourself. Wouldn't this be good? You will need your own home after all."