Lewis Hamilton @ Shanghai GP [Credits: Emilgh]
With the world seemingly against him, Lewis Hamilton proved them all wrong and raced to a fantastic win in Shanghai’s Formula 1 on Sunday. He was labeled arrogant by the press and some of his rival drivers even pledged to help his title rivals in order to pay him a lesson, but regardless of all the talk and chatter, the Brit is now in a sweet position to become the youngest world champion ever if he manages to finish in the top five on Nov. 2nd in Brazil’s end of season race.
Read the rest of this entry »
Beijing [credits: Wawoe]
China’s property market has taken a steep turn for the worse if we are to believe the various reports that are beginning to surface in major online publications right now.
The signs of trouble are not a total shock to the system of any alert investor, as many would have been aware of the implications when China started to ban major development projects at the beginning of this year due to heavy pollution in the city of Beijing. This ban didn’t happen overnight though, it was advertised in due time to give developers ample time to prepare themselves for the change.
Read the rest of this entry »
The fourth quarter of 2007 saw the end of Beijing and Shanghai’s housing boom. As transaction volumes plummeted by as much as 25 and 40 percent from July to August 2008 and by 67 and 70 percent year on year in Beijing and Shanghai respectively, developers’ are having to offer buyers’ massive discounts to boost sales of new units. According to CCTV, last month’s (August), average daily turnover in Beijing was a meagre 150 units which in Beijing standards is a new all time low.
Secondhand properties are also not doing well with a year-on-year decline of 10-15 percent in August, sellers have having to make price cuts by as much as 5 percent.
The situation at the moment is that it is a buyers’ market in housing in 1st tier Chinese cities with more and more potential buyers waiting to see if there would be further price drops to pick up properties at bargain prices.
Read the rest of this entry »
China’s property laws are not easy to see through if you have never been there or are not familiar with local laws and customs. On our journey through the online world of information we came across many contradicting messages and while trying to sort through all the stuff we came up with the following information. To stay true to all the sources we have quoted many and hope the result is a somewhat informative guide to buying real estate in China.
According to a recent report by WorldBank, 120 cities and regions within China have been surveyed for their overall investment climate.
Taken into account were differences in the importance of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in local industries, over staffing of labor, firm access to bank loans, confidence in protection of property and contract rights and overall adequacy of local transport and power.
Read the rest of this entry »
Monday, October 20th, 2008 
Posted by OP-Mall in 
