vA piece of news run on Ifeng.com caught my attention but with no surprise.
According to the news, a dozen of American individual real estate investors are selling their hotel units bought six years ago. It made news because of its sensitivity in a time people are waiting to see where the Chinese property market is heading, or put it clearly how much the prices can fall. The news is a direct sign that foreign investors are looking short of China real estate market.
At this moment, I don’t know how many, if any at all, are still holding hope for the property market in China. Prices are falling in real term in many forms as developers cannot hold themselves unbruised through this round of property curbing measures taken by central government earlier this year. Since then, I have been warning that foreigners who own properties in China may consider cashing in on thier Chinese real estate. Like it or not, China property market is falling.
It is falling but not yet a plummet. Developers, esp small ones, are offering real discount (rather fake ones based on increased prices) compared with property sold in privious phases. Even in the second-hand market, owners are cutting generously their benefits to please buyers many of whom are actually hesitating to make a home purchase.
Right now, for residential properties, the market is stagnant. It is probably already too late to sell property. For commercial properties, the market seems to be much better off as this sector of the real estate market is not within the “purchase restriction” policy imposed by government, and Chinese rich people are keeping investing in commercial properties to hedge their assets against high inflation.
As real estate attorney based in Shanghai, China, I have been helping foreign investors to buy and sell real properties in the past and we are pleased to offer legal service to foreign owners who want to sell their Chinese properties esp at a time when risks relating to real estate transaction are mounting due to market difficulty. In addtion, we also help you to repatriate your sale proceeds derived from selling Chinese property back to your home country. In particular, we have partnered with a foreign bank in Shanghai to help clients to get their sale proceeds out of China.
For more information on selling property in China, please refer to previous post “Sell your properties in China”.
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