Stories of real estate in past Beijing
Distinguished by eight colors of banners, the bannermen were professional soldier elite of the Qing Dynasty. Photo: FILE
The recently aired TV series I Will Find You a Better Home has made home sales and real estate agents a topic of wide attention. In fact, home sales have a long history in China and real estate transactions appeared as early as in the Western Zhou Dynasty. The Qing Dynasty and the period of the Republic of China in particular featured many real estate tales.
After the Manchu soldiers made it through Shanhai Pass, which marked the beginning of the Qing Dynasty’s rule, public ownership of housing was adopted. The princes and dukes lived in superb mansions according to their official rankings. The officials and soldiers within the Eight Banners enjoyed allocations of houses for free. Seven, ten, twelve, fifteen and twenty rooms were respectively allocated to officials ranking from the fifth-grade to the first-grade; and three-to-four rooms were allocated to officials ranking from the eighth-grade to the sixth-grade; for those in the ninth grade and below, two rooms were allocated. The property rights were owned by the court, and buying, selling and renting were not allowed.
The houses were distributed in 24 zones within eight city gates—Anding, Desheng, Dongzhi, Chaoyang, Xizhi, Fucheng, Chongwen and Xuanwu. These zones also garrisoned troops. There were regulations as to the prescribed locations of houses allotted to bannermen and their family members. For example, the house of the writer Lao She’s ancestor, was located within the Xizhi city gate, the garrison zone of the red banner. If the house needed to be altered as one was promoted to a higher rank, the bannerman was not allowed to move out of the zone of his own banner unit. For those bannermen who took office in other places, houses in the inner city were retained to ensure that they had houses to live in after retirement.
This allocated housing was under the unified management of the Internal Affairs Department and supervised by government offices within the banner system. There were detailed regulations as to the building material, ornamental carvings, color of coating material, house hall construction, and even each nail on the gate. Such mansion houses were found all over the inner city. However, if one’s peerage of nobility was divested, the mansion house would be reclaimed by the Imperial Clan Court and was allocated elsewhere.
The ownership of the houses was not permanent. If bannermen were expelled or deprived of their registered residence, the official housing would be confiscated. Cao Fu, the administrator of Jiangning Textile Industry, was one example. After he was discharged from his position, his property was confiscated and his family was severely punished by the court. Most of the housing complex was confiscated and only several rooms were left for his family to live. Author of Dream of the Red Chamber, Cao Xueqin, as a member of Cao’s family, was also deprived of his registered residence as a white bannerman. He led a wandering life in Western Hills with no permanent settlement.
As the population of bannermen grew, the number of houses declined considerably. The official and private houses confiscated and acquired totaled less than 200,000 in the early years during the Shunzhi Emperor’s reign (1644-1661), which was far from sufficient. As a result, from the middle period of the Kangxi Emperor’s reign (1662-1722) on, it was stipulated that the Han armies, the inferior group of bannermen, should live in the outer cities. Upon the stipulation, poor bannermen scrambled to rent out, pawn and even sell the official houses, and most of the deeds’ tax payments were not acknowledged by the Internal Affairs Department or other official organs. The transactions were conducted privately between buyers and sellers.
By the period of the Qianlong Emperor’s reign (1736-1795), vacant official houses began to be sold at a discount to those who owned no home due to family splits or other reasons. In addition, payment by installments was allowed. Down payments of 50% of the total purchase price could be made and the remaining price would be covered through a mortgage loan over eight years. After the Jiaqing Emperor ascended the throne (1796), the house purchasing system was adjusted and the remaining cost was to be paid within four to seven years.
During the reign of the Daoguang Emperor (1821-1850), since the empire’s finances were no longer able to cover the huge expenditure of bannermen, the court was once again forced to allow bannermen to “earn their own living.” The state-owned property rights of official houses and the regulation that bannermen must live in the inner city and Han people must live outside the city was abolished.
Since ancient times, there have been deeds, proof of legal ownership of a house. It was a paper of fixed form initially issued by the government, with the homeowner’s name, address, acreage and number of rooms written on it. In case of sale, a draft deed was made as the contract of sale was signed. There was usually only one draft deed, mostly with only the name of the seller and the middleman but without the buyer’s name on it. The buyer’s name was not signed until the Republic of China.
In the Song Dynasty (960-1279), official institutions started to file house sales. Those without a filing were known as draft deeds, commonly known as “white deeds,” and those filed were called official deeds, commonly known as “red deeds.” The formal steps were as follows: The government offices provided the formal contract text for the signing of the agreement, and after the white deed was verified, the deed tax was paid. Finally, the official mark of approval was attached and the government seal was affixed. The red deed was kept by the buyer, but in fact, few people applied for the red deed, which required a high deed tax and complex procedures. Many buyers omitted the filing procedures. However, as it was not filed, the white deed that had no buyer’s name on it would incur great trouble to the owner if it was lost.
No matter whether a house sale was filed or not, someone was needed as the go-between for a house sale. This gave rise to real estate agents, whose income was earned from both buyers and sellers. They got up early and gathered in the teahouse to glean information. This group of people were called paoqian (the go-between agent) or qianshou (the middle hand).
They were usually articulate, talkative, sophisticated and well-informed about the housing market. The competition was fierce between them. For one single sale, it wasn’t just one or two people who got the commission. Usually at least three to five or even seven to eight people shared the commission.
It was not easy to canvass for business and customers. For these agents, on a given day, nine out of ten might be empty-handed with no transactions procured. Fortunately, the commission was considerable. From the Qing Dynasty to the 1950s, the commission consisted of 3% of the purchase price from the buyer and 2% of the selling price from the seller, and this was distributed to each agent according to their work.
Transaction agreements were usually signed in restaurants. The seller wrote the sales instructions and gave the house deed and house blueprints to the buyer. The buyer wrote purchase instructions and set clear transfer procedures. After qianshou marked off the instructions and affixed the seal, the commission was immediately paid by the buyer and the seller. Ultimately, a banquet was held as the final procedure. According to the Guide to Beiping (Beijing) published in the 1930s, “most qianshou had no regular occupation, but compared to buyers who conducted transactions themselves, the help from qianshou would make the transactions more secure.”
This article was edited and translated from Being Daily.
edited by BAI LE