Shanghai is reining in property buying by foreigners, if they want to buy a second one especially. Some may wonder whether this has anything to do with Chen Liangyu’s fall. Maybe not.
District transaction centers in Pudong New Area and Jing’an, Xuhui and Baoshan districts have stopped accepting applications from foreigners and Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau residents who want to buy a house if they already own a home in the city, according to staff at the centers.
Under the national framework policy set by six government bodies including the Ministry of Construction and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange in July, overseas individuals must live for at least one year on the mainland before they can buy a house. They must also promise that the house is for personal use.
Industry insiders said the central government’s guidelines were difficult to implement because they were vague over the definition of “personal use.” “That’s why some transaction centers have interpreted the general policy as barring foreigners from buying a second house,” said an industry insider who preferred to remain anonymous. [Full Text]
Technorati Tags: foreigners in China, property market, Shanghai
– Also The Sunday Times’ Shanghai Property Slump in Purge:
The Shanghai property boom could be the next casualty in China’s unfolding political purge of Communist party leaders.
– And Foreign Property Investment Half of China’s Total in Moming’s blog:
Foreign direct investment in China’s property market in the first half of this year reached $2.77 billion, about 60 percent of China’s total real estate investment, said Jones Lang LaSalle, a real estate consultancy company. Almost all of the overseas investment in China’s property market is betting on the appreciation of the yuan.
