The San Francisco Chronicle looks at the luxury housing market in China:
“What’s the luxury housing market like in China?” asks Colleen Edwards, who recently visited a number of residential developments across China. “It is California Tuscan goes to China. One of my favorite discoveries during our trip was a development in Chengdu called San Ramon.”
When China’s new wealth goes house shopping, “they want to re-create success,” according to Edwards, co-founder of EMC Creative, a marketing and communications firm in Danville. “There is so much money, and such a great desire to have what looks best from the West,” she added. “The wealthy Chinese want residences that re-create successes, especially from the West Coast, from California.” In late spring, Edwards and others toured China, visiting several planned communities.
[…] “The Chinese are slavishly European in their taste for residential design,” said Bay Area architect Chip Pierson, who has worked with Chinese developers for more than seven years. “Here’s an example: In Beijing, there was a subdivision that was a reproduction of the Forbidden City right next to other developments that were Western and called Napa Valley and Orange County. Here’s the irony: The Europeans bought the homes in the Forbidden City; the Chinese live in the Western-style developments with West Coast names.”
