"Since that's the case, how much more of a discount can you offer per square meter?" Yi Anguo asked.
"If you were to purchase dozens or even hundreds of units, we could indeed offer a further discount, but it still wouldn't be enough. You'd have to put some of your own money in," General Manager Zhuo said after a moment of thought.
"In that case, General Manager Zhuo, first tell me how much more of a discount you can offer per square meter, and then I'll calculate how much I'm short," Yi Anguo insisted, wanting the other party to name their lowest price first.
"The most we can offer is another 500 yuan off per square meter," General Manager Zhuo stated after a moment of reflection.
He silently did the math in his head. Based on a 100-square-meter unit, that was a 150,000 yuan rebate. His down payment was twenty percent, which would be 128,000 yuan. The deed tax for multiple properties was 3%, and then there were various processing fees and insurance fees. Fortunately, the housing maintenance fund fee wasn't mandatory yet. Still, it would cost over 20,000 yuan, leaving him with less than 10,000 yuan.
"That's a little low. Can't you offer any more of a discount?" Yi Anguo asked, a bit frustrated.
"This is already the best price. If we go any lower, we'll be running at a loss," General Manager Zhuo said.
"Well then, can my twenty percent down payment be calculated based on the actual transaction price?" Yi Anguo thought of another angle.
"For instance, your public price is 6,400 yuan per square meter. For a 100-square-meter unit, my twenty percent down payment comes to 128,000 yuan.
"But in reality, after you subtract the cash rebate of 1,500 yuan per square meter from the 6,400 yuan price, the actual price is 4,900 yuan per square meter. At that price, my twenty percent down payment should only be 98,000 yuan.
"Don't you think that makes sense, General Manager Zhuo?"
「One month later」
All the procedures were completed. Yi Anguo now owned half of Blue Coast Phase Two. A full one thousand properties were under his name, and he owed the bank five hundred million yuan. The monthly repayment was 2.65 million yuan, amounting to over 31.8 million yuan a year.
Fortunately, the mortgage payments didn't start until next month, and over thirty-eight million yuan had already been deposited into his account—almost enough to cover more than a year of payments.
This was the main reason Yi Anguo dared to buy a thousand properties.
A little over a year from now would be the end of October 2004. If he held on until the end of 2005, housing prices would have already doubled. If he ran short on cash, he could simply sell a few.
Blue Coast primarily featured large apartments, making it an upscale community. In Shenzhen City, these could be considered luxury homes. In contrast, ordinary residential areas mainly consisted of small apartments. Some three-bedroom, one-living-room units were even less than 60 square meters.
The apartments at Blue Coast, however, were spacious. Even the two-bedroom, one-living-room layouts were generally between 73 and 78 square meters. The three-bedroom, one-living-room version was 89 square meters, and the three-bedroom, two-living-room models—the most common type—ranged from over 100 to over 110 square meters.
There were also quite a few four-bedroom, two-living-room units of around 140 to 150 square meters. Some extra-large units were around 160 or 170 square meters, and there were even duplexes that exceeded 200 square meters.
Overall, the environment of the Blue Coast community was excellent. The spacing between buildings was wide, with only two apartments per elevator landing, ensuring great natural light. The community's landscaping and gardens were also very well done.
Before his rebirth, Yi Anguo had seen promotional material for this property. Twenty years later, the average transaction price would exceed 100,000 yuan per square meter.
Yi Anguo also knew that the impact of the epidemic would soon pass and housing prices would immediately rebound. In fact, the average transaction price for housing this year was slightly higher than last year's, by over 100 yuan per square meter.
Considering the epidemic's impact in the first half of the year, the average transaction price had certainly fallen.
The actual transaction prices had likely fallen even more sharply. Many developers held various promotions to boost sales. For example, Blue Coast was officially listed at 6,400 yuan per square meter, but the actual transaction price was less than 5,000.
This just went to show that you couldn't judge things by their surface appearance; the reality could be completely different.
As for why the bank was willing to lend five hundred million yuan to allow Yi Anguo to buy a thousand properties? This was where the developer's brilliance came in.
To reassure the bank and gain its trust, Yi Anguo was packaged as a billionaire. The developer showed the bank the thirty percent down payment they had supposedly already received and then deposited over thirty-eight million yuan into Yi Anguo's account.
This money was the cash rebate the developer had agreed to give Yi Anguo—1,500 yuan per square meter—just paid in advance. Of course, the developer had to hold onto this bank account for the time being. What if he decided to run off with the money?
When the bank saw that Yi Anguo had already paid a thirty percent down payment and had over thirty-eight million yuan in his account, they were naturally much more willing to approve the loan.
In this era, there were no restrictions on purchasing property or getting loans. As long as you could provide the down payment, you could buy as many properties as you wanted.
Even so, Yi Anguo still found it hard to believe it was real. Do I really own a thousand properties now?
I had never dared to imagine the developer would be so audacious and resourceful, managing to secure a thousand units for me. I originally thought I'd just buy a few dozen, a hundred at most. I never expected the developer to actually sell me one thousand units, and even have a way to get the bank's approval.
The developer was truly audacious for selling, Yi Anguo was just as audacious for buying, and the bank was incredibly daring to approve such a massive loan.
Yi Anguo took his daughter to pick out a large, three-bedroom, two-living-room apartment of over 110 square meters.
Although he could have chosen an even larger unit, he felt it was unnecessary. A three-bedroom, two-living-room apartment was more than enough for him and his daughter. A house that was too large would just be a hassle to clean.
Yi Anguo specifically asked the developer for a ground-floor commercial space. After all, with a thousand properties to rent out, it would be inconvenient not to have a storefront to manage the business from.
The developer was very generous, giving him one of the best-located commercial spaces, over 200 square meters in size, for the "friendly price" of only one million yuan!
A unit like this would sell for over 20,000 yuan per square meter, and certainly no less than 10,000.
The saleswoman, Li Sisi, couldn't have imagined in her wildest dreams that Yi Anguo would buy a thousand properties worth over five hundred million yuan.
According to her contract with the company, her commission was 0.3%. On a sale of over five hundred million yuan, that meant her commission would be one and a half million yuan.
In 2003, one and a half million yuan was an enormous sum for an ordinary person. Li Sisi didn't dare to imagine earning that much money. She suspected the company wouldn't actually give her that much. They would probably just hand her a few tens of thousands of yuan and send her on her way. There would be nothing she could do about it.
However, to Li Sisi's surprise, while the company didn't give her over a million yuan, they did give her the substantial sum of three hundred thousand yuan.
Manager Zhang from the sales office told her, "Originally, this deal for a thousand units didn't have much to do with you. The company was only planning to give you ten thousand yuan. But Mr. Yi told the boss that if it weren't for your sincerity and kindness, he wouldn't have considered buying a home at Blue Coast.
"That's why the boss decided to give you a commission bonus of three hundred thousand yuan."
Three hundred thousand was already fantastic; Li Sisi had never truly expected to receive a commission of one and a half million.
Li Sisi had a PHS phone, and she used it to call Yi Anguo. She wanted to thank him in person.
Yi Anguo was with his daughter at his new commercial space, interviewing people for jobs. He needed staff to help manage the storefront, deal with prospective tenants, and show them the apartments. He couldn't very well show apartments while holding his daughter, could he? Showing a thousand units by himself would be exhausting!
When Li Sisi arrived, she expressed her profound gratitude to Yi Anguo.
"Sister Si Si!" Yi Xinyi called out happily when she saw Li Sisi.