Buying Into China’s Land Rush

Americans, Others
Acquire Luxury Homes
Despite Restrictions

By LORETTA CHAO and JASON LEOW
January 18, 2008; Page W1

Beijing

Once known for drab, government-controlled housing and ancient courtyard homes, China has become a land of multimillion-dollar apartments and soaring property values. And foreigners are trying to get in on the action.

Real-estate prices in major Chinese cities have been shooting up at double-digit rates year over year, boosted by an economy that has been growing at more than 10% annually. The jump in prices has been so sharp that the government in mid-2006 implemented stricter controls on foreign investment in hopes of reining in housing costs. Still, foreigners keep buying.

Bill Bishop, a 39-year-old American living in China, bought a four-bedroom penthouse in Beijing in 2005, choosing a luxury complex built by a big-name developer and run by a well-known property manager. The apartment was an unfinished shell — a common way of buying a unit in China — and fitting it out took more time and attention than Mr. Bishop, a private investor, imagined it would. But he estimates that the home, for which he paid “a fraction of the cost of an apartment in Manhattan or San Francisco,” now is worth at least 50% more than he paid for it.

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华 盛顿17日电／面对经济衰退的担心日增，美国总统布殊与联储局(Fed)主席长伯南克17日纷纷表态，指出国会应尽快制定刺激经济的方案。政府官员透露， 布殊私下告诉国会领导人，他支持用给个人退税和给公司减税的做法，避免经济陷入衰退。与此同时，伯南克也呼吁国会迅速制定一个刺激经济的一揽子方案。据 悉，布殊、国会领导人和伯南克挽救经济的一个主要做法将是退税。现在民主、共和两党领导人考虑的退税数额是：个人退税300美元至800美元；夫妇退税最 多可得1600美元。 Read The Full Story…