CHAPTER 27: CHAPTER 27: HOUSING PRICES HAVE RISEN AGAIN

The thirty 258-square-meter apartments were sold, earning over 23 million yuan. He then spent 20 million yuan to buy the former sales office of Blue Coast Phase II.

The next step was to prepare for the opening of a fresh food supermarket. Yi Anguo didn’t tell his third sister and brother-in-law that he had bought the shop himself. He only said that it was rented for 150,000 yuan per month.

Without pressure, there is no motivation. If I told them the property was bought and didn’t require rent, they might not feel any pressure at all. Besides, business is business. Paying rent for a shop is a matter of course. Even if the property is your own, the rent still needs to be included as a cost.

Before his rebirth, Yi Anguo had worked in a large, publicly traded corporation. The same industrial park was divided into Factory One, Factory Two, Factory Three, and so on, all the way to Factory Seven. A single floor might even be split between two factories, but each calculated its costs independently. For instance, if Factory Six temporarily had no orders and its workers were sent to support Factory Three, then Factory Three had to cover the wages and social security for these employees. If Factory Six had spare space and Factory Three needed it to meet a production deadline, it could borrow the space but would have to pay Factory Six rent for the premises, as well as a share of the utilities and central air conditioning costs.

Each factory’s monthly output, expenditures, profits, and losses were all meticulously calculated. Therefore, regardless of whether Yi Anguo had bought the shop or not, the rent had to be factored in as one of the operational costs.

Although Yi Anguo had never run a fresh food supermarket, he had considered the idea before his rebirth and had looked into it. He understood the business to some extent—certainly much more than his third sister and her husband did.

Furthermore, while his third sister and brother-in-law had made a good amount of money from their fruit shop, they hadn’t been in business for long. They couldn’t come up with enough capital to open a supermarket of over 1,000 square meters.

In the end, Yi Anguo was willing to invest, but every business carries risks. What if the venture lost money? The couple simply didn’t have the means to absorb such a loss. So, the investment came from Yi Anguo, making him the majority shareholder with a 70% stake, while his third sister and brother-in-law held the remaining 30%.

The total investment for the supermarket was projected to be 2 million yuan. Yi Anguo would contribute 1.6 million yuan, while his third sister and her husband would put in 400,000 yuan. That 400,000 yuan was every penny they had earned from their fruit shop over the past eight months. They didn’t dare invest their life savings from years of working, as they would have no safety net left if things went south.

As for Yi Anguo, after covering the 450,000 yuan for the shop’s rent and deposit, he only needed to provide another 1.15 million yuan in cash. His sister and brother-in-law were quite satisfied with the deal, especially the three-month rent-free period for renovations. Originally, Yi Anguo’s 1.6 million yuan contribution warranted an 80% share, but he declared he would only take 70%, saying he was counting on the couple to manage the supermarket.

Yi Anguo’s role was mainly advisory; his third sister and her husband would be the ones doing the actual work.

Truthfully, my original plan was just to lend them the money and let them run the supermarket themselves. I didn’t want to get involved. I could make more money by putting that same energy into the stock market. Besides, I already have to worry about collecting rent and overseeing the development of Quiet Convenience Store.

Two months after the first Quiet Convenience Store opened, a second one was announced. Hu Jing’s heart was anything but quiet. With Yi Anguo’s support, a seed of ambition was growing rampantly within her.

After two months, the share price of Guojiu Stocks finally fell below 33 yuan, hitting a low of 32.20 yuan. Seizing the opportunity, Yi Anguo spent a week acquiring 4 million shares. Even so, the average purchase price reached 32.85 yuan, costing him a total of 131.4 million yuan. He had no choice; the daily trading volume was extremely low, often just a few tens of millions of yuan. After he finished building his position, there was one day when the total trading volume didn’t even exceed 2 million yuan.

There were still plenty of smart people out there; no one wanted to sell their shares.

A few days later, Guojiu Stocks issued an announcement: July 1st would be the ex-dividend date. For every ten shares held, there would be a 3-yuan cash dividend and three bonus shares. The dividend on 4 million shares amounted to 1.2 million yuan, and his holding increased from 4 million to 5.2 million shares. However, the stock price plummeted, opening at 25.02 yuan. In reality, he was at a loss, even with the dividend.

Fortunately, the price then rose to close at 26.73 yuan, resulting in a floating profit of 7,599,900 yuan. For a while after that, the stock saw a consistent, albeit modest, rise. Then, on July 26th, after the price surpassed 31 yuan, another round of decline began. Yi Anguo didn’t dare sell off much of his holdings because the daily trading volume was too low. Besides, selling shares less than a month after the ex-dividend date would incur a 20% tax, which was not worthwhile.

It probably won’t fall too much, so I’ll just forget about it and leave it be.

Fu Huanhuan got her wish and became a tenured teacher at the elementary school affiliated with Shenzhen University, located near Blue Coast. She had finally persuaded her parents to call her uncle for help. However, she still had to take care of the two children after school.

After Li Sisi started her internship at the local tax bureau, she finished work on time and rarely had to work overtime. This left her with enough time to buy groceries and cook in the afternoons. During the day, both children were at kindergarten, so no one needed to look after them. It was just a matter of dropping them off in the morning and picking them up in the afternoon. Usually, Yi Anguo would pick them up. If he was busy, he would send Wang Bing to get them and bring them to the fruit shop. After school, Fu Huanhuan, or Li Sisi after work, would then pick them up from the shop and take them home.

Housing prices continued to rise, especially for large, luxury homes. A 155-square-meter apartment with four bedrooms and two living areas in Blue Coast Phase II sold for a high price of 1.38 million yuan, an average of 8,903 yuan per square meter, pushing close to the 9,000 yuan mark.

This was the Houhai area of Lanshan District, not Futian District, where prices of 12,000 yuan per square meter were considered normal. It wasn’t even the central part of Lanshan. Just a few years ago, this area had been nothing but tidal flats reclaimed from the sea. It had only begun to prosper in the last couple of years with the rise of the real estate market. In 2001, the average price of new homes in the entire Nanshan District was just over 4,000 yuan per square meter. In just over three years, prices had soared past 8,000 yuan, nearing 9,000. The rate of increase was staggering.

Barely two months had passed since Yi Anguo sold his thirty properties. He had missed out on over 200,000 yuan of profit per unit. Across all thirty properties, that was 7.5 million yuan gone.

Zhuo Weidong and Yi Anguo soaked in a pool, having a frank conversation.

"Young Yi! You’ve really made it big now. Not only do you have a good eye, but you’re also lucky. With this fierce rise in housing prices, you’ve made a fortune—even more than a developer like me. I’m truly envious, jealous, and full of spite!" Zhuo Weidong said admiringly.

"You developers have already earned what you were supposed to. What’s there to be envious of?" Yi Anguo replied. "It hasn’t even been two months since I sold my thirty properties, and I’ve already lost out on seven or eight million in potential profit. I haven’t said a word."

"Damn it! For those thirty houses, you ought to be grateful to me for life!" Zhuo Weidong said, exasperated.

"What about your Blue Coast Phase IV? How much would you have lost by now if you had launched it for sale around New Year’s?" Yi Anguo countered.

"I do have to thank you for that," Zhuo Weidong admitted candidly. "If I had launched the sale during New Year’s, I definitely would have made much less money."

"However, I’m planning to change course and move into commercial real estate development. So, I can’t delay Blue Coast Phase IV much longer. I’m preparing to launch the sale soon."

Yi Anguo shook his head helplessly. "Since you’re in a hurry to get your capital back, then go ahead and sell. I believe housing prices will only get higher in the future. No matter when you sell, it will feel like you’re losing out all the same. The longer you postpone the sale, the higher the prices will climb, and the more you’ll inevitably earn."