Given what a the challenge it can be to get on the property ladder in the country, it's probably no surprise that Chinese social media was buzzing with one particular property story last week.

It started when a blog was published on the popular blogging platform the Tian Ya Yi Du forum, by a person writing under the pseudonym 'Proud Qiaoba'.

Proud Qiaoba penned a tale that, if we hadn't been able to verify it ourselves, would seem like the plot of a pretty average airport romance novel.

The lead character in Proud Qiaoba's account is a colleague, whom Chinese media have dubbed 'Xiaoli' (not her real name).

Xiaoli, a woman from the city of Shenzhen in southern China, asked each of her 20 current boyfriends to buy her a newly launched iPhone 7. She then sold all of the phones to a mobile phone recycling site called Hui Shou Bao for 115,010 Chinese yuan (about £14,000), and used the money to put down a deposit on a house in the countryside.

Proud Qiaoba wrote in the blog post that when Xiaoli showed her new house to their group of friends, they were all very surprised when she revealed how she had managed to obtain the money for the deposit.

"Everyone in the office is talking about this now," wrote Proud Qiaoba, "Who knows what her boyfriends think now this news has become public."

Proud Qiaoba added that Xiaoli "is not from a wealthy family. Her mum is a housewife and her dad is a migrant worker, and she is the oldest daughter. Her parents are getting old and she might be under a lot pressure hoping to buy them a house... But it's still unbelievable that she could use this method!"