The soap opera of China’s housing boom

By Geoff Dyer

The most talked-about television programme in China at the moment is a soap opera called Snail House, which offers the viewer sex, corruption and political intrigue. Really, however, it is all about house prices.

One character becomes the mistress of a party official to help her buy a flat, while another young couple struggles unsuccessfully to raise the deposit for an apartment in a city that looks suspiciously like Shanghai. The series struck such a raw nerve that the censors took it off the air at the end of last year, although that has not stopped it becoming a big online hit.

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"But while China has talked about a property tax for years, it has never been implemented."