Illustration by Key Xin from Bloomberg Markets
China’s Housing Crash Could Set Back Millions of Promising Careers
Professionals who thought they’d won a secure place in the rising middle class are now looking for work and scraping by.
Ivy Zhang figured she had it made.
Fresh out of school after studying chemistry, she joined one of China’s biggest property companies in 2016, as the country’s real estate market was taking off. She worked until 11 p.m. every day and was transferred to a bigger city after being designated a “sales champion.” She pampered herself in her limited time off by regularly buying $550 spa packages. Money was so plentiful that she didn’t have to think about it much. “The bank account was just a series of numbers,” Zhang says.