Shanghaiist: Housing market crash hits Shanghai's expat population

nanheyangrouchuan

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 03:34:27 +0700

I wonder how much money Beijing is spending to prop up the major developers, ie silent bailouts? And still lots of office buildings going up...

EL JEFE

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 02:33:00 +0700

Of course, buyers and sellers will define this market differently. That house is on fire...Motivated seller!

yu888

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 02:23:29 +0700

Uh, someone obviously is writing based on skewed info. While the market has dropped, in certain areas, I must have a different definition of "free fall". How about pulling some primary source info rather than just re-reporting something that has likely already gone thru translation and misinterpretation? I base my criticism on the fact that we actually very recently (ink not dry yet) sold property in Shanghai at around 25% off the peak price but that is hardly a free fall.

EL JEFE

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 01:04:03 +0700

Don't you mean it is a good time to buy? Better than buying at the top last summer at least, right?

catshanghai

Mon, 16 Mar 2009 16:18:51 +0700

It depends where you buy. We bought our appartment buy Nanpu Bridge 2 years agao for 12 000 RMB a square metre and the asking price is now 18 000 RMB. That doesn't necessarily mean we would get the asking price if we chose to sell tomorrow, but I'm living in a rundown downtown area that is on the doorstep of the Expo area that is ripe for development and is not part of the expat market. I've read reports that property prices could fall by as much as 50 percent in some areas where there is over supply of empty housing. I agree that the expat market will also be hit by falling demand. Somewhere in between there is the local housing market in densely populated Chinese areas where 85C and Dia outnumber Starbucks and City Supermarket. I can't see these places losing their value to the same extent as your blog post suggests.