The survey showed that many participants scored a perceived risk and anticipated regret
rather high. Home buyers in China are typically prone to perceive risk and anticipated
regret for three possible reasons. First, real estate ‘pre-sale’ is the mainstream transaction
mode in China. This adds to uncertainties of housing outcomes. To make matters worse,
most of pre-sale house purchasers are inclined to conduct the transactions by themselves
instead of using professionals. Second, the housing-price-to-income ratios of cities in
China may be the highest in the world, with 17 for Beijing and 23 for Shanghai
(China Statistics Yearbook 2008). This leads to the perception of suffering a big loss if a
person’s property purchase decision goes awry. Third, China’s real estate market is still
immature and legal protection for property ownership is limited. Therefore, home buyers
are more likely to worry about the prospects of purchases