Beijing residents struggle to get on housing ladder

BEIJING - Even by tightening the purse strings and cutting out spending other than on necessities, the average Beijing resident would still need at least 25 years to buy an apartment, the latest report shows.

The ratio between house prices in Bejing and the average annual income of its residents stood at 25:1 last year, according to an annual report on the state of Beijing jointly released on Saturday by Beijing University of Technology and the Social Science Academic Press (China).

The average annual income per household in Beijing was 64,285 yuan ($9,489) in 2008, official figures show. The figure for 2009 has yet to be released.