Twenty-eight-year-old Zhu Yi'an has been single for a long time but has no plans to tie the knot anytime soon - at least until he can afford the down payment on an apartment in Shanghai.

He's not aiming at an extravagant, 1,000 square meter villa. On the contrary, his target is simply a secondhand apartment on the "outer ring" of Shanghai, an area where longtime residents like his parents would not have thought of living.

But the city's sky-high housing prices may be forcing Zhu to postpone his life plans and distance him from friends and relatives.