Chapter 285: The Tide of Urbanisation

Han Songlin had wanted to invite Zhang Menglan to dinner, but she had left the orchestra at the end of her third year of high school and said she had already flown back to Hujian. This came as a slight surprise to Han Songlin, and he made a special phone call.

Zhang Menglan said that they could have dinner together again in the future, but she was in a hurry to return to Hujian because she had some things to take care of.

After expressing his regrets, Han Songlin didn't care.

Han Songlin was also quite busy during the Spring Festival, visiting relatives and friends.

On the fifth day of the first lunar month, Fule Wine started work again, and the workshop also fully resumed production.

Do you think Fule Wine's Spring Festival holiday was short?

This is not true. At this time, the Spring Festival holiday is only three days long!

Even the two-day weekend holiday system was not confirmed until March of this year.

Therefore, the length of the holiday at Fule Liquor is considered relatively long at this time.

'Happy New Year!'

'Boss, Happy New Year!'

It's only been a few days since I last saw you, but a year has already passed.

The Lunar New Year has officially begun.

The Fulue winery workshop is particularly busy after production, but otherwise things are not too busy at the moment.

After all, the Spring Festival holiday has just ended, and society as a whole has not yet returned to high speed.

'So, how was the Spring Festival?'

Xu Lu smiled and said, 'It was okay. I felt like there was nothing to do at home, so I might as well go to work!'

Han Songlin raised his eyebrows, thinking to himself that he really has met a workaholic!

'You're going to be busy this year!'

'Busy is good, it means we're doing well.'

Han Songlin and Xu Lu sat down in the office. Han Songlin said, 'I just found out that quite a few people at the winery are planning to buy a house in the city.'

At that time, the real estate industry in China had not yet experienced a major boom.

There were simply not enough new commercial housing developments.

In fact, no one had been buying before, so naturally no one was building.

If you want to buy one, you won't be able to find a suitable commodity house.

Xu Lu couldn't help but look at Han Songlin in surprise: 'Boss, you're not going to say that you want the factory to come in and repair commodity houses, are you?'

Han Songlin spread his hands and said, 'Well, I have that idea. What do you think?'

'I think...' Xu Lu pondered, not saying yes or no.

'Boss, what exactly is your view on the future of commercial housing? You go first!' Xu Lu was convinced by what Han Songlin said. Since the boss wanted to build commercial housing, he must have seen that the future of this industry was definitely promising.

Xu Lu really hadn't studied this area in depth.

In terms of housing prices, there haven't been any major changes recently, and it doesn't seem like there's been much turnover either.

Two years ago, the real estate market on Nanhai Island was booming, and domestic housing prices rose quite a bit. But after the boom, there was a mess left behind, and the upward momentum of domestic housing prices came to an abrupt end, and they even went down.

Han Songlin thought for a moment and organised his thoughts: 'Do you know about urbanisation?'

Xu Lu nodded, but didn't say too much: 'Well, I guess so!'

There are several concepts of urbanisation, some from the perspective of demography, some from the perspective of economics, and some from the perspective of geography.

'In the future, our country will definitely follow the path of urbanisation, because all the contemporary powers have achieved industrialisation and urbanisation. As for industrialisation, our country can only barely be said to have achieved it.'

'In terms of industry, we are still relatively weak compared to foreign countries, and there is a lot of room for improvement in the future.' When Han Songlin talks about industry, he doesn't compare with a specific country at all, but directly compares with foreign countries.

There is really no need for China to compare with a certain country.

The Chinese themselves feel ashamed, so they always compare with foreign countries.

'Let's not talk about industry for now, but just the urbanisation rate. Our country's urbanisation rate is currently less than 30%. It should be around 28%.'

Xu Lu thought for a moment, and then said, 'I think you're right!'

'The urbanisation rate in developed countries is 80%! We're only at 28% now, so the gap is obvious, isn't it?'

Xu Lu frowned: 'Boss, but 80% is for developed countries.'

'Yes, our country, China, will also become a developed country in the future! We must look at the problem from a developmental perspective. It is true that we are still very poor, but being poor is not terrible. You see, we Chinese have worked so hard, and there is no reason to say that we cannot become rich!'

Looking at Han Songlin's complete confidence in the future, Xu Lu opened her mouth, not knowing what to say.

'Can we really become a developed country?'

'Have confidence. Throughout our 5,000-year history, except for the last 100 years, we have been the most powerful country and civilisation on the entire planet. This brief period of backwardness is not our norm; it was just an accident. Our norm has always been to be number one in the world.'

Xu Lu looked at Han Songlin carefully. At that moment, Han Songlin had a confident air about him.

'So, boss, what does this have to do with commercial housing?'

Han Songlin: 'Of course it's related! Because our country will become stronger, the path that developed countries have taken will be a great reference for us!'

You can't copy what can't be copied. China has its own national conditions, so how can it copy the Western model?

Everything that has been copied has died.

'The tide of urbanisation is bound to come. A large number of rural people will flock to the cities. With such a large influx of people, there must be somewhere for them to live, and a lot of commercial housing will be built. The real estate industry will become the industry with the most development prospects for at least the next 20 years.'

Han Songlin had previously hesitated about whether to get involved in the real estate industry.

After all, real estate companies don't seem to have a very good reputation.

So why not try to set up a different kind of real estate company?

I can't bring down property prices, but I can at least make sure that the houses people buy are worth the price.

And naturally, there won't be any of that nonsense like common areas.

'How about compared to white spirits?'

Compared to white spirits?

That's not really a fair comparison.

It's true that the white spirits industry was in a downturn in the years following 1997.

But after China joined the WTO, the industry quickly recovered and has grown for more than ten years.

'Fule Liquor will remain our main business in the future. Real estate is just a side business. For now, we'll test the water in the music industry and gain some experience.'

Xu Lu: 'In other words, this is not the time for real estate to develop?'

'When the state announces that it will no longer allocate housing as a benefit, that will be the time for real estate to take off.'

There are already signs of the abolition of welfare housing; now that many state-owned enterprises can't even pay wages, there's naturally no way to talk about welfare housing.

'Then I know what I should do!' Xu Lu felt that he really needed to do some research on the real estate sector.

After all, in the words of Fule Wines, this year, the books will slowly begin to accumulate a lot of capital.