Hard to Buy a House in Shanghai

By Jian Shuo Wang on 2003-08-31 21:00 · Real Estate

The temperature of Shanghai finally goes down to below 30 degree C. This is the ending of the two week exteremly high temperature - the Autumn Tiger. The number of empty taxi on the road dramatically increased today.

I went to see the newly opened house of Vanke City Garden. It is outside the outer ring road of Shanghai, which is very far from the city. To my surprise, the price has raised to 5800 RMB per sq. meter. The 127 sq. meters apartment will be about 740K RMB.

Nearby is the new houses which is about 1 to 2 million RMB. See the pictures below:

I am really shocked to see the rapid price raise in real estate. When I bought my aparment in 2001, it is only 530K in total. Now, it is raised to about 900K. It is not among the highest raise. Some house in Xinzhuang was 4000 RMB/sq.meter laster year and are not 7000 RMB/sq.meter this year. It is keep increasing every DAY.

It is so strange that the sales representitives and the customers seems to be in the swapped position. Customers are begging for help from the sales representives to do them a favor to get a house. It is also a common practice to offer several thousand fee to hire the representives to get an apartment. Houses will be booked immediately after they are offered to market. I found the new real estate project from Vanke - the Four Seasons City at Bao Shan (which is very very far from the downtown Shanghai) opened for sale yesterday (Aug 30, 2003). When I call them this morning, the sales lady on the other side of the line told me that all the apartments had already been sold on yesterday. It is unbelievable, but it is true…

20 Comments

That's great for you, Jianshuo. Your apartment is appreciating wildly, so if you ever go to sell it you should make quite a bit of money.

— John · 2003-09-01 05:00

Hi John :

I must say, don't be red - eyed. Yes, this guy can easily rake in nearly 400 thousand RMB from a small part of 530 thousand price if it was under installment plan. But, that is being happened in Shanghai -- a place to fulfill your dream !

— Xu · 2003-09-01 12:28

I will not sell my apartment since it is so expensive to get a new one for me to live.

— Jian Shuo Wang · 2003-09-01 17:25

Xiao Wang :

Yes, that is what I guessed you would reply. Providing you are still interested in the new opened houses, the second snuger house must be already on your visionary agenda, to which I think you are sure to run faster to approach than the pace of price rising. Look forward to the day when dreams come true !

— Xu · 2003-09-01 20:20

Addition :

Sorry, what I meant above red-eyed is the Chinese version of green-eyed, man who writes English is always attached to the sense of his native tongue.:-)

Xiao Wang :

I am still curious about what you mentioned that you even need to hire a representitive of residential developer to buy a house. Does it mean that you should hire a private detective disguised as a enployee of houses seller to get the first hand imformation ? Even old Shanghainese became unable to make sense of updated phenomenon of Shanghai, -- okay, I admit that I have lagged behind the times. Could you give more details of that to help me catch up with the what now Shanghainese are thinking about ?

— Xu · 2003-09-02 09:52

Xu, I mean people some times give the salesperson for the real estate some money, say 10,000 RMB - personally - to ask them to get the good position (seems good deal is not possible now) among all the apartments

— Jian Shuo Wang · 2003-09-16 09:28

it's just like a shear roberry. i believe most of the real estate companies have been playing a trick. Now the job market in shanghai is really bad while the real estate is too harsh for most of the young.

life shanghai is getting tougher and tougher!

— tutu · 2003-09-18 11:47

Wow, how enviable it is ! Now I became to want to come back soon in order to find a job in any residential developer, even someone like tutu above commented that the life in Shanghai is getting tougher and tougher. By the way, I happened to perceive that a couple of words was changed quietly from your original article. :-)

— Xu · 2003-09-18 19:41

Hi all,

I am new to Shanghai and the housing market. Very glad to know that many people here have experiences with buying apartments.

I heard that many people in Shanghai are now moving into new residential enclaves like those built by Vanke. The last time I visited Shanghai, i noticed that most of these private housing estates are enclosed by gates/fences and patrolled by security guards 24 hours a day.

Is Shanghai so "unsafe" that many people are moving into these new guaded homes? My Shanghai friends say that these new gated housing in new 'xiao qu' is very popular now in China. Does anyone know why Shanghai residents are choosing to move into these gated premises? Maybe it is security but also prestige! I must say some of Vanke's housing are very high quality too...Thanks!

— Pow · 2003-11-24 11:32

Pow, it is interesting that I learnt that you get the impression that Shanghai is "unsafe" because people move to safe-guarded residential areas. This is obviously misunderstanding. The culture difference between the East and the West is the reason.

In China, people has the trandition to build closed house with very high walls strong defence system. It does not mean Shanghai is unsafe.... It is the style in the country. Just take it as an example, all the universities in China have high walls the seperate the area from the outside, so people visiting America will be very surprised to see there is no wall for their universities.

— Jian Shuo Wang · 2003-11-25 09:14

Hi Wangjianshuo:

I like your website which is full of variety! Talking about house, I'd like to know a single house info.in Sheshan including the price per sq.meters. Do you have info.about that? appreciate!

— Chin · 2004-03-12 22:47

How things have changed!!! Great site by the way, just found it and love it! I'm now looking for an apartment in Shnaghai and find that a lot of the agents and sales people still have the attitudes mentioned above - however they are sitting in empty offices and sales rooms. Time for the proces to come down and the buyers to relax... and about time it is too.

— Adam · 2004-03-26 16:28

this is the market..

— shanghai real estate · 2006-02-28 16:51

And it is´nt any better in Ningbo.

I am just waiting for the big boom, the I might buy...

— David · 2006-07-04 17:12

Hi,

Is it possible to buy a similar house you bought in 1999 with the same price may be in the outskirts of the city?

— Ali · 2006-08-28 21:27

hi guys, I am thinking of buying a house in shanghai suburb, I am not sure about the current trend of shanghai housing price. I mean I want to buy a house for investment purpose, could anybody here be kindly enough to give me some guidences? by the way, I am miles away from china. Your help would be greatly appreciated!

— xin zhang · 2007-05-30 05:52

I am from the U.S. and am interested in investing in an apartment in Shanghai. Can anyone give me any information about this process. I spent this past Summer in China studying and I really loved it. Please any advice or information would be greatly appreciated. THANKS!

— christy · 2008-02-01 12:46

It is safer to own property in China than ever before. New legislation protects the rights of private owners and investors. China is desperately keen to maintain the phenomenal growth that it has experienced over the last few years. This growth is largely domestic, but also thanks to the huge inflow of 'foreign direct investment', or FDI. The authorities know that if they do not look after investors' interests, a large part of which is respect of personal property rights, then the flow of FDI will dry up, and economic growth will be damaged. They have every incentive to look after foreign investors, as looking after your interests is very much in their

— eric · 2008-03-13 21:31

Every people notice that real eastate marketing was the easiest way to earn the money.

— Aquaspace · 2010-03-12 12:19