On January 19th, international gold prices reached a historic peak. The spot price of gold in London once surged past $4,690 per ounce. According to data from Jintou.com, as of the time of writing on January 19th, Chow Tai Fook's gold price was 1,455 yuan per gram, while Lao Feng Xiang's gold price was 1,456 yuan per gram.
Recently, the market for precious metals like gold has remained intensely hot. Yet, even more challenging than "snatching up gold" is "securing a safe deposit box," with major first-tier cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen experiencing a severe shortage, creating a situation where "finding a single box is difficult." Estimates suggest that the waiting time for a safe deposit box at some banks could be as long as five or six years.
"The high demand for bank safe deposit boxes exhibits distinct cyclical and structural characteristics, reflecting an underlying upgrade in residents' needs for asset security management," said Gao Zhengyang, a special researcher at Su Shang Bank, in an interview.
The contradiction between "static supply" and "dynamic demand" has become particularly pronounced amid the gold-buying frenzy. Throughout 2025, spot gold prices rose by approximately 70%, leading to a significant surge in consumer investment demand for gold bars and other precious metals. Many investors discovered after purchasing gold that "renting a box" was far more difficult than "buying the gold."
Inquiries revealed that in Beijing, branches offering safe deposit box services include the Beijing Branch Business Department, Yayuncun Sub-branch, Wangjing Sub-branch, Jianguo Road Sub-branch, Dayuncun Sub-branch, Wanquanhe Sub-branch, and Shijicheng Sub-branch.
"There are currently no available boxes, and if you join the waiting list, it might require a considerable wait. There are over a hundred people queued for small boxes, and the queue for large boxes started back in 2021. The main issue is that very few people are returning their boxes," explained a staff member at the Beijing Branch Business Department.
It is understood that some banks have also set financial asset thresholds for renting safe deposit boxes. For instance, the Shenzhen Branch Business Department only provides safe deposit box services to Golden Sunflower tier and above clients (those with financial assets exceeding 500,000 yuan).
"The rapid increase in demand for securely storing high-value physical assets like gold bars has directly driven up the demand for safe deposit box rentals. This need is more pronounced in first-tier cities, which have dense populations of high-net-worth individuals and concentrated asset scales. On the supply side, safe deposit box services are often ancillary banking operations, primarily positioned as an entry point to retain high-net-worth clients and enhance customer loyalty. Banks allocate relatively limited resources to this area, resulting in a long-term static development characteristic," Gao Zhengyang stated.
Simultaneously, high box renewal rates and slow return speeds further exacerbate the supply shortage, creating a rigid gap in availability.
Despite the supply-demand imbalance, finding effective solutions remains challenging. "Banks offer security far exceeding that of a typical home, thanks to vault-level protection, multiple verification steps, and 24-hour monitoring. As a physical storage tool, a bank safe deposit box also provides a sense of psychological security," explained a staff member from a joint-stock bank. Bank safe deposit boxes are a professional custody service offered to clients, mainly used for storing important documents, precious metals, valuable instruments, and are secured through multiple authentication methods such as "ID card + password + physical key."
In the face of the current robust rental demand, the supply of bank safe deposit boxes is struggling to increase. "The safe deposit box business generates relatively low profits for banks, occupies significant space, and entails high compliance operating costs, making it difficult to rapidly boost supply capacity in the short term. Some banks are even scaling back their branch networks or discontinuing this service altogether," said Lou Feipeng, a researcher at China Postal Savings Bank, in an interview.
It is understood that building a new, high-security standard vault is extremely costly, while the revenue from safe deposit box services is relatively limited, making it a low-margin business for banks. The size categories and rental fees for safe deposit boxes vary between different banks.
For example, China Merchants Bank categorizes its boxes from Type A to Type N. The smallest, Type A (538mm × 90mm × 60mm), has an annual rent of 260 yuan, while the largest, Type N (538mm × 890mm × 980mm), commands an annual rent of 42,000 yuan.
At a branch of Bank of China in Beijing, safe deposit boxes range in size from small to large, categorized as Type A through Type H. Type A (approximately the size of a pack of A4 paper) costs 500 yuan annually, whereas Type H costs 18,000 yuan per year.
"Large-scale construction of new safe deposit boxes is economically inefficient. The primary strategy for banks currently is 'optimizing existing stock' and 'leveraging technology'," said Tian Lihui, a Professor of Finance at Nankai University. Some banks are internally working to increase utilization per unit of space through on-site capacity expansion and upgrades to intelligent compact shelving systems. Concurrently, they are piloting smart safe deposit cabinets in controlled scenarios to meet differentiated needs through tiered services. However, these measures represent gradual improvements and are unlikely to fundamentally resolve the supply-demand矛盾 for bank safe deposit boxes in first-tier cities in the short term.
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