Chapter 265: High Property Prices, Change of Plans
As luck would have it, just as Chu Mingcheng finished two days of rest at home and had stocked the Poseidon with daily necessities, a typhoon was on its way.
The new boat hadn't even been taken out for a spin, and now it was about to be tested by a storm.
Fortunately, the boats docked on either side were of a similar size, and a row of large tires along the sides prevented collisions. Chu Mingcheng didn't stay idle. He joined the other boat owners in tying down and securing the vessels with ropes to welcome the impending typhoon.
The typhoon's landfall was also conveniently timed—set for the very day the fishing ban was lifted.
According to the local fishermen, however, this was a good omen. A typhoon was often followed by a bigger harvest.
After all, the fierce winds and massive waves didn't just affect the fishermen's work; fish would also flee to deeper waters to escape the disaster, going hungry for several days. Once the typhoon passed, the starved fish would come out to feed en masse, making for a much better bite than usual.
But Chu Mingcheng had no plans to go out to sea just yet, so he wasn't concerned.
He had converted all the money he'd earned in Australia to RMB. Combined with his previous savings, he now had nearly 6.5 million yuan.
After factoring in the investment for the club and the costs for his sea trips, Chu Mingcheng had about five million to spend on a house.
So he excitedly drove to Jiang Luoluo's studio and found her in the middle of a dance practice. Seeing him arrive, the dance instructor tactfully left the room.
Jiang Luoluo stopped dancing and sat down to rest. "Why are you here so early today?"
"Well, I've finished up with everything else, so I thought we could go look at houses."
"How much did you make in Australia?" Hearing him bring up buying a house again, Jiang Luoluo couldn't help but ask curiously.
"About five million."
"Is that in Australian dollars? That's so much!"
"Uh, RMB!"
"Ohh~!" Jiang Luoluo shrugged. "In that case, I actually wouldn't recommend you buy a house in Xiamen."
"Why's that?" Chu Mingcheng was a bit curious, not quite understanding her attitude.
"You want to buy a house, but you haven't even looked at the local property prices?" Jiang Luoluo sighed helplessly.
"..." Chu Mingcheng felt a little embarrassed. He really hadn't looked, mainly because he'd been busy stocking the new boat since he got back. Now that he had some free time, he'd come straight to find Jiang Luoluo without getting a chance to check.
He then went online and searched for property prices in the Siming District. When he saw the average price was 72,000 yuan per square meter, a curse immediately escaped his lips. "Holy shit, are the property prices here that ridiculous?"
He was looking at new properties in good locations. Seeing the high price, he checked some second-hand properties and was floored to find they were still over 65,000.
He had originally been thinking of buying a villa or a large flat. At these prices, his five-million-yuan budget would barely cover a down payment.
And then a loan of over ten million—how much would the interest be?
With his earning speed, taking out a loan was a bad deal.
Even if you paid off a mortgage early, there were usually all sorts of restrictions, like having to pay for at least a year or paying a certain penalty fee. It varied from bank to bank.
The banks were in it to make money from interest; they weren't going to make it easy for homebuyers.
So, even if Chu Mingcheng could pay in full later, he probably wouldn't buy here now.
Seeing his reaction, Jiang Luoluo couldn't help but chuckle. "Still planning to buy?"
Chu Mingcheng immediately shook his head. "Wouldn't I be an idiot to buy at such a high price? It would be better to buy in Beijing, Shanghai, or Guangzhou. Even buying in Hangzhou would be better than here!"
However, these words made Jiang Luoluo's face darken, and she gave him a light smack. "What do you mean, an idiot? Watch your mouth."
Chu Mingcheng froze, then remembered she owned a house here and grinned sheepishly. "Hey, I wasn't talking about you!"
Jiang Luoluo rolled her eyes and didn't bother explaining that her father had bought the house, though she was the one paying the mortgage, so it did involve her.
She hadn't planned on buying a house either, but when Jiang Bo learned that his daughter was determined to stay and develop her career in Xiamen, he was worried she'd encounter some creepy male landlord while renting and decided to buy a place for her.
Although Xiamen was nice, its development was really only concentrated on the island. Moreover, it couldn't retain young people who wanted to build a career; it just had a lot of tourists every year.
So, just as Chu Mingcheng had said, with that kind of money, it would be better to buy in Beijing, Shanghai, or Guangzhou.
After a moment, Jiang Luoluo offered some advice. "I think you need to consider your career first."
"In the future, if you're based in Xiamen, you could buy a pickup truck and install a crane. That would make it convenient to transport and sell large fish like tuna."
"Also, Shanghai has a professional tuna trading market. If we have a lot of catch from the deep sea that we can't sell off in Xiamen, we can go straight to Shanghai to sell it on our way back. Since we'll be passing by Wenzhou, we might as well buy a big house in your hometown."
"Every time we come back, we can either go to Hangzhou to visit my parents or go back to Wenzhou to visit yours, right?"
Chu Mingcheng nodded, thinking it made a lot of sense. His new boat could hold at least twenty-plus tuna.
If he returned from a trip without filling the refrigerated hold, the high costs would make it a bad deal; he might even lose money if the catch was too small.
And the tuna trade in Xiamen wasn't mature. Selling to a tuna hunter wasn't worth it; their commission was usually as high as 10%.
Other shops might not be able to handle so many tuna, so he might have to go to Shanghai often.
However, Chu Mingcheng would still prioritize trying to develop sales channels in Xiamen. After all, it was a coastal city with so many restaurants; the demand for tuna couldn't be small.
It was just that most restaurants didn't have professional tuna butchers, and their dishes only used certain parts of the tuna. So whether he could develop some customers was still uncertain.
But the fish situation wasn't urgent. Now that he wasn't buying a house, he planned to go buy a car that afternoon.
A pickup truck was a must, and he could also replace the hundred-thousand-yuan-plus car at home.
He had wanted to ask Jiang Luoluo to go with him, but she was unwilling.