Raising money to buy a house can be extremely difficult - unless you have 20 boyfriends who would do anything for you.

A woman in China hit upon the ingenious - if slightly cynical - idea of making her devoted partners essentially pay for the deposit between them.

The woman, known only as Xiaoli, told the 20 men to buy her a brand new iPhone 7 - which she then sold to raise £14,000 for a house deposit.

Xiaoli, from Shenzhen, sold the handsets online and is now set to move into her own home in the countryside, according to the BBC.

Proud Qiaoba wrote on the Chinese blogging forum Tian Ya Yi Du: “Everyone in the office is talking about this now.

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Scheme: The woman sold 20 iPhone 7s so she could buy a house (Flickr)

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"Who knows what her boyfriends think now this news has become public.”

Xiaoli was said to come from a poor family and was “under a lot of pressure” from her parents to buy a house.

Proud Qiaoba added: “But it’s still unbelievable that she could use this method!”

Her story has split opinion on Chinese social media, with several users branding her “shameless”.

However, one woman wrote: "I can’t even find one boyfriend. She can actually find 20 boyfriends at the same time and even get them to buy her an iPhone 7.

“Just want to ask her to teach me such skills.”

Top pic: Getty