Chinese Man Retires at 30 After Acquiring 14 Apartments, Earning More Than $30,000 a Year

A Chinese man has decided to retire at just 30 after spending more than 2 million yuan (about US$300,000) to buy 14 older apartments, which generate tens of thousands of dollars in annual rental income.

The young property owner’s decision to switch from earning a regular salary to relying on rental income has attracted considerable attention across China.

The man, Fan Junjie, is from Jilin province in northeastern China. He initially moved to Changsha for work, but his online sales job in the healthcare sector required him to work as many as 18 hours a day while earning only a modest income.

Having seen how expensive property is in China’s major and first-tier cities, Fan identified older apartments in central Changsha as an affordable investment opportunity. Some of the apartments cost as little as 300,000 yuan (about US$45,000), including renovation expenses.

Fan began actively buying properties in 2023. Over the past two years, he has acquired 14 older apartments for a total of more than 2 million yuan. The units are small, were built decades ago and have outdated facilities. At present, 11 of Fan’s apartments are rented out, generating annual income of about 210,000 yuan (or approximately US$31,500).

Fan’s least expensive apartment cost 150,000 yuan and generates about 1,700 yuan in monthly rental income. His most expensive apartment cost a total of 310,000 yuan, including taxes, real estate agency commission and renovation costs, and earns 2,200 yuan a month in rent.

By the age of 30, Fan had achieved his goal of financial independence and early retirement, commonly known as FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early). However, Fan sees little difference between collecting rent from apartments and receiving dividends from investments, as both are ways to generate regular cash flow from income-producing assets.៕