HOUSE prices in Beijing dropped 19.67 percent in December from the previous month, China's Central TV reported.
The average residency price dropped to 12,180 yuan (US$1,676) per square meter from 15,162 yuan. Prices in Dongcheng, Xicheng, Chongwen and Xuanwu, the districts with the highest house prices, slumped to 18,401 yuan per square meter from 23,467 yuan, the CCTV report said yesterday, quoting SouFun Holdings Limited.
Many local property companies had to sell homes with free decorations and appliances due to the slump in sales, according to a Beijing property company, which sold only 10 percent of its new houses in Zhaoyang District since October.
Transactions in Beijing's secondhand house market shrunk 8.2 percent in December, Beijing's official online real estate trading Website said, which described the slump as abnormal.
House prices in Shenzhen and Guangzhou began to drop in October. Transactions shrank more than half in October, the biggest drop in three years. The average price in Guangzhou plunged 20 percent in December.
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Shanghai Real Estate market
Shanghai (Chinese: 上海; Pinyin: Shànghǎi; Shanghainese: /zɑ̃'he/; abbreviation: 沪; nickname: 申), situated on the banks of the Yangtze River Delta in East China, is the largest city of the People's Republic of China and the eighth largest in the world.[4] Widely regarded as the citadel of China's modern economy, the city also serves as one of the nation's most important cultural, commercial, financial, industrial and communications centers. Administratively, Shanghai is a municipality of the People's Republic of China that has province-level status. Shanghai is also one of the world's busiest ports, and became the largest cargo port in the world in 2005.
Originally a fishing town, Shanghai became China's most important city by the twentieth century and was the center of popular culture, intellectual discourse and political intrigue during the Republic of China era. After the communist takeover in 1949, Shanghai languished due to heavy central government taxation and cessation of foreign investment, and had many of its supposedly "bourgeois" elements purged. Following the central government's authorization of market-economic redevelopment of Shanghai in 1992, Shanghai has now surpassed early-starters Shenzhen and Guangzhou, and has since led China's economic growth. Some challenges remain for Shanghai at the beginning of the 21st century, as the city struggles to cope with increased worker migration, a huge wealth gap, and environmental degradation. Despite these challenges, Shanghai's skyscrapers and modern lifestyle are often seen as representing China's recent economic development.
Monday, January 14, 2008
House prices plunge in Beijing
