According to reports, there has been a recent surge of people in China rushing to rent safety deposit boxes at banks, driven by soaring investment interest in gold and the need to store it securely.
Amid rising global geopolitical risks, gold prices have continued to climb, surpassing 5,000 USD (19,700 ringgit) per ounce. As gold prices soar, Chinese citizens are showing a strong enthusiasm for gold investment, which has led to a wave of renting safety deposit boxes to store their gold.
According to recent reports from Hong Kong and Chinese media, the safety deposit box rental business at various banks in China has been booming. For example, at China Merchants Bank’s Shenzhen headquarters, all of its more than 8,000 safety deposit boxes have been rented out, and there are still 500 to 600 customers waiting in line—it could take 5 to 6 years for them to secure a box.
An employee at a Bank of China branch in Guangzhou told the media that their branch's safety deposit boxes are basically full, and applicants now have to queue. A staff member at a branch of China Construction Bank also revealed that apart from a few available small-sized boxes, all other larger safety deposit boxes have been rented out—making it extremely difficult to secure one.
According to reports, the annual rental fee for small safety deposit boxes at mainstream banks in China generally ranges from 200 to 500 RMB (113.7 to 284.25 ringgit), while large boxes are mostly between 1,000 and 3,000 RMB (568.5 to 1,705.5 ringgit) per year.
Other Chinese media reports say that since July or August last year, some banks in China have already had no vacant safety deposit boxes, because rising gold prices have fueled customer demand.
Some Chinese netizens commented on social media that with gold prices soaring, they don't dare to keep valuables at home and can only use bank safety deposit boxes. But after checking, they found that safety deposit boxes have become a hot commodity and it's hard to find a bank with available boxes.