"If you fail to buy a house again this year, don't come back for the Spring Festival," my mom said over the phone two days ago, only half joking.

It's three months until 2011 Spring Festival, but getting a house by then seems a mission impossible.

Since I came to Beijing last year, my parents have been prepared to deliver their lifetime savings at any moment to pay a down payment for a house.

Personally, as a woman in my mid-20s with a reasonable job, I don't want to buy a house at the moment at all. My career is just beginning, and marriage is something I can wait a couple of years for. Why do I need a house, yet alone the burden of a heavy mortgage?

But in my parents' eyes, my first priority, as the family's only child, should be a house.

While I arrived at Beijing, the real estate was booming after the economic crisis, as buyers rushed to what was perceived as a rare safe investment opportunity.

One buyer went to withdraw cash and returned to the apartment he wanted to buy, only to find that the seller, surrounded by eager applicants, had raised the house price by another 100,000 yuan ($15,044).

Throughout last year, "Did you go out and see apartments?" has become my parents' greetings to me over the phone. Each time when I returned home during holidays and festivals, my parents lecture me, "If you don't buy it now, you will never be able to afford to buy one in the future, not to mention the looming inflation. You're our only child. How can you let us watch you constantly live under other people's roofs?"

I did go to see apartments, but my repulsion toward the real estate market has only grown. I cannot imagine why a second-hand two-bedroom apartment covering 88 square meters outside Beijing's Fifth Ring Road could be sold at 1.95 million yuan ($293,000).

The agent even winked at me, "As I told you, the price is below average market level. It is a cost-effective deal."

Buying a new apartment is even more complicated. Throngs of buyers, including both investors and genuinely aspiring homeowners, can only sign up and then wait. The developer will then choose buyers at random.

Nevertheless, the lottery invariably seems to prefer those who can deliver full payment at once.