[photopress:propery_Anna_Kalifa.jpg,full,alignright]Prices for high-end homes in China’s capital have been at record new levels all year, even with dramatically fewer transactions, rental prices flat and many new units empty.
But popular addresses that hit the market a few years ago at $1,200 a square meter are now commanding prices of $2,500 to $4,000 a square meter as their final stages are completed.
Such a bubble market might easily burst in many countries. But in China, where property development is a seemingly unstoppable economic engine, it beats money in the bank. Rich investors are getting richer off China’s relentlessly booming stock markets and trade surpluses. And the euphoria is running particularly high as the Beijing Olympics approach, analysts said.
Anna Kalifa, the head of research for Jones Lang LaSalle in Beijing and shown here said, ‘Market growth is the rule here. It’s just a question of more or less.’
In a survey released last December, the local real estate group Home Link found that the median price of housing was 9.4 times the annual income of the average Beijing household, twice what the World Bank considers affordable in a developing country.
Source: International Herald Tribune
You must log in to post a comment.