Home ownership is a laughable dream for those of us in 'generation rent'. By the time my folks were my age they had their own abode, while I'm stuck renting a tiny flat above a chicken shop for an eye-watering amount with no hope of getting my foot on the property ladder in the foreseeable future.
That said, I get loads of tasty poulet.
Of course, I'm not alone, rising house prices have pretty much ruined all of us.
However, one woman has found a pretty interesting way to get the money together for a deposit.
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A woman from Shenzhen, southern China, who is being called Xiaoli online, is reported to have not only found herself 20 boyfriends, but managed to find lads stupid enough to be willing to fork out and buy her a brand new iPhone 7, each. She then sold the phones, because unless you're this husky, you only need one.
This is Shenzhen. My colleague has been there. He says it's a shithole. Credit: PA
From the sale of these phones, she then bought herself a house. That is a very novel, clever and ridiculous way to get on the property ladder.
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Meanwhile, in England, a spare Mars bar will get you a property in Barrow-in-Furness, while selling your soul to the devil will get you a parking space in Buckinghamshire.
A friend of the woman, who blogs under the name Proud Qiaoba, shared the story. She wrote: "Her mum is a housewife and her dad is a migrant worker, and she is the oldest daughter. Her parents are getting old and she might be under a lot pressure hoping to buy them a house... But it's still unbelievable that she could use this method!"
After successfully bagging herself the mobiles, she flogged them on a recycling site for 115,010 Chinese yuan, about £14,000, which was enough for a deposit on a house in the country.
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But most importantly, let's work out how she has time for 20 boyfriends. Firstly, you'd have to assume she's not keeping them all secret, so does she hang around with a few at a time? Does she go to the cinema with happy Cheng and the opera with cultured Feng? Does she plough fields with pastoral Liang and hide in bushes with creepy Liu? That's a lot of effort. Just remembering the names would be hard enough.
Fair play to her, I guess. What do you reckon?
Featured image credit: PA
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