It’s so cool, I just really wanted to share.
It’s on 1363 Fuxing Middle Road Building S, for Shplace :-p.
Shanghai just keeps going and going, and going, it might be time that energizer lets go of it’s catch phrase and leaves it to our beloved real estate market.
According to reports, in March 2010 sales are up an astonishing 150% for storefronts and malls from february.
And 55% more than they were in march 2009.
There has been an increase in develepements, and the chinese new year holidays have certainly played a role, but this doesn’t keep me to still take a step back and glance at the numbers in awe.
The average price has increased 0.37% for march from february and is also up 48% from March 2009 and locked at 19767 Rmb per square meter average.
The city has seen a huge increase in investment style storefronts for sale in newly developed malls especially in the minhang and songjiang area, they’re often sold with tenants already waiting in line to take up the place and pay rent.
The hubs in the areas nearby major subway stops such as Xinzhuang and the new Songjiang stops have gotten a great boost in recent years thanks to the influx of people from the rural areas taking up jobs in the city and living in the more affordable areas nearby the subway stations.
CNBC news release of a cushman & wakefield Report on global real estate activity showed chinese markets up 242% in 2009 or 156 Billion US Dollars.
The whole list.
china $156 billion
hk $9 billion
UK $39 billion
USA $38 billion
Japan $19 billion
Germany $14 billion
France $10 billion
South Korea $10 billion
Australia $7 billion
Taiwan $5 billion
http://www.cnbc.com/id/35676535?slide=1
On a sad note, it seems that J.G Ballards Shanghai home has fallen to the developement.
I recently passed by and noticed the Restaurant SH508 has closed (it moved to somewhere else, I seen it too, but can’t remember now).
I had in my wildest dreams not been able to imagine it being destroyed.
http://shanghaiist.com/2010/03/10/the_disappearance_of_jg_ballards_sh.php
According to China Daily and reports the offiicial home prices are up by 1.5% in 2009.
Are you serious?
1.5%
I guess you can argue that prices fell and are up just a few points since 2008, but for 2009? A real boom year?
We had so much influx in new buyers we couldn’t find places fast enough, and in the year that downpayment speculators became big?
It seems highly unlikely, in 2009 the Lakeville’s 3rd Phase re-emerged, and so did several slow selling properties from 2008.
Even though few of them sold, prices were still cut significantly in 2008 and have bounced back an astonishing amount in 2009, to many in the industry.
A boom year.
Read the China Daily Article.
Ok, maybe I’m biased, it’s only Shanghai I know and have insight too.
But there is also hainan that was on the news.
Hangzhou, Suzhou and Chengdu have rebounded, and I find it hard to believe that this was a mere 1.5%.
Dear Shanghai and of course, everybody else reading this out there….
…. happy chinese new year!
I’ve had a break, for the first time in years, and really was able to put some thought into the madness of this Real Estate market we all love.
First, upfront, I’m speculating based on my experience and “insight” into the inner workings of this market.
It’s not a numbers game, it’s as I always say here, plain common sense to me.
And this post is a question asked to the future, not a prediction.
So, now, to get at it.
Recently our real estate firm got a lot of new customers that came directly related to the expo, several countries are sending in people just for the expo, and companies do so though.
That for us amounted to about an extra 30 or so clients that are directly involved in the 2010 Shanghai Expo.
Most will stay for a year starting now and are looking for apartments downtown, though some chose Pudong it was mainly downtown.
Realizing that they’re snapping up lot’s of commodity out there and started putting a small squeeze into a previously relaxed market I asked myself what happens after they all leave.
Obviously, it’ll go back to it’s more relaxed state of 2008 and 2009.
But, how many people are here, indirectly involved with the expo?
And how many will stay, or more importantly leave when their employment contract expires after or during the expo year?
I looked back a few cases, and counted, there is an endless number of advertising client-el that arrived in the city because of the 2008 Olympics, a lot of them left, but some stayed.
I wonder how many stayed just because of convinience for the expo being so close a date?
We had a few engineers and IT people too, from firms, not solely working on the olympics or expo, but with a few projects tied to it.
Will the demand for this highly technical skill drop after?
How significant will the drop be if that’s the case?
I don’t know, it would be a prediction.
What I remember from the short downturn during the financial meltdown i the US is that landlords panicked, and competed against each other just 2 months in when the market was in a seasonal low anyway (christmas, western and chinese new year), resulting in some rents being had at 50% of the previous price.
Things quickly picked back up when the demand for rental properties was back to the usual high of march and april.
This year it started early, and it’s at least partially related to the expo.
Remembering the panic price slashing that time I don’t know if it’s a good thing that landlords went by without the yearly dryspell of places staying vacant for a whole month or longer (obviously, there are places like that, but these are deadbeats, bad places that stay vacant in the hottest markets anyway).
I don’t see 1000’s of places being empty after the expo, but it could easily be, that if a lot of people leave because this thing is over people go back to panic price slashing, just the difference would be that this downturn is for good.
Would a slow rental market affect prices of luxury items in the city?
I think a long slow market could do that, I mean, who wants to sit on a place they can’t rent out for the price of their mortgage?
Will investors scoop the bargains like they always did before, or will they recognize that this slow market might hold for a long time and spark a correction?
Thoughts anybody?
And please, don’t take my ramblings to serious! 
What may come to no surprise to some is that mainland buyers are increasingly snapping up Hong Kong luxury properties recently.
1 in 5 luxury properties in the island city (a property sold at higher than 10 Million Hong Kong Dollars is considered luxury) comes from the mainland now.
The more accurate figure is 18.1 % according to Centaline Property Agency or Zhong Yuan.
Since the downturn in 2008 more and more Mainlanders rush to the island to buy bargains deemed good investment.
Shanghai itself has slowed down a bit and transaction volume is siginifcantly lower.
It’ll be interesting to see what comes after the holidays.
Happy chinese new year everyone, may the year of the tiger bring health and success to all of you.
Hello 2010!
I hope that all of you, as I had a great ride into the new year, excited to see what 2010 brings, especially in our fantastic Shanghai!
1.32 Billion RMB
…thats what Shanghai’s Gubei Developement Group paid for block B7 and B8 or roughly 33 acres in Shangha’s tourist town Zhujiajiao (or little venice).
146% price increase, and they beat out 14 other competitors, congratulations!
298100
Is the new record of 2nd hand houses sold during one year in Shanghai. And
it was last year!
320.7 Billion Rmb was the transaction volume of these apartments and houses not including
new developements, also a record.
14.5 Million Rmb
…is what Shanghai’s hero Liu Xiang paid for a 436 sqm Villa in Putuo. Roughly 33′000 Rmb per square meter.
The olympic gold medalist will surely bring lot’s of attention to one of the hottest Shanghai districts these days.
For some people it’s fear, for most it’s joy, the gov. people and developers coming in and offering to buy the property you hold of your hands.
They usually offer a little more until you refuse them a few times and they offer you a huge sum above market price for your pad.
This just happened to an old guy holding a smal 30 square meter one bedroom no kitchen place on Sinan Road that is supposed to become the next Xintiandi.
Negotiating for months the developers have gotten nowhere,
our Shanghainese hero has of yesterday been offered 35 Million Rmb for his 10 square meters of the new Xintiandi.
And I write about him here, because he refused this offer.
350k Rmb per square meters for his old run down “gongfang” that has already been abandoned by most of his neighbors wasn’t enough.
Yesterday, he told us, he’s holding out for 120 Million, and apparently they can offer him this or build the new paulaners around him.
Now, that would mean Real Estate prices have still some room to go, and that this elder citizen might be shanghai’s most shrewd negotiator in the property game.
Shanghai Real Estate prices have popped 20,000 the 20,000 Renminbi per square meter for the first time.
In the last week Shanghai’s average price per square meter has hit 20,826 Renminbi per square meter.
A magic mark, having hovered around 19000 Renminbi for a long time this year, and during the 2007 high.
Transaction volume decreased around 25% in the week from rising 5% the week earlier.
Total transaction was 296,000 square meters.
Shanghai Budget Housing launched
Shanghai has opened the run on the first 7200 units of it’s budget housing project.
The Apartment’s located in Jiading, Songjiang and Minhang which offer 70%ownership and cannot be sold wihtin 5 years, will sell for under 5000 Rmb per square meter.
The run on the properties have been big, but the rules are strict;
each applicant must hold a shanghainese houshold certificate for longer than 7 years, and must have lived in the district of application for at least 5 years (means the registered address from what I understand), the household average maximum income per head is no more than 27600 Rmb, and their assets are not to exceed 70,000 Rmb (per head).
and other criteria…
The properties limits are also set according to each household’s unique setting, say a family with a child younger than 8 years old is to apply for the 61sqm unit.
Developer demands VIP card to see model room
What the Property Community names as the most “NIU” (sort of means “able”) developer in town has asked people interested in buying their product (villa’s) averaged at 17000 Rmb per sqm to first buy a VIP card for 300′000 Rmb. Or they won’t be shown anything in the compound!
The approach seems to bear fruit, the development has already transacted more than 90 Million RMB worth and it hasn’t even officially opened yet!
Not a usual post but I thought this might help a lot of you out there looking to buy a property in China’s No 1 Cosmopolitan Jungle.
Well, Step .1 is to get in touch with the best Real Estate agency out there, and check some awesome place at their Sales Site.
But all kidding aside, number one is really, really find a good broker, there is regulations and restrictions, and if you’re not best bro’s with your company superior and HR (for income statement), make sure you get the guys to make a check on what loans you can get.
Step 1
Souting.
Finding a house can be easy or tough, if you know what you want it’ll be easy, for newer place you’ll find stuff to compare but for rare pads such as old houses and super exclusive boutique compounds you may find that the one place you’re looking at is the only one for sale.
You won’t be able to compare it with different style housing next door or in the area in most cases as they vary so much.
The best way to find out that what you’re paying is right is to ask for previously sold places prices.
Increases are normal, and it’ll depend on the timespan but you can compare it with the general market and increases in more populous complexes.
Step 1.2
Probably needless, but I’ll still put it out there, don’t take the asking price if you have other choices.
Negotiate, and maybe see if the landlord is willing to give you some incentives, like a new water heater, or other things that are small but a major improvement to the current state.
Often I’ve successfully negotiated landlord’s paying all or part of the other sides taxes, or sometimes the agency fee.
Step 2
Making a downpayment.
Once you found your place, negotiate price and terms through the broker, and if needed checked that you can get an adequate loan on the place (emphasized because of importance!), it’s time to make sure that there won’t be some evil twin of yours to snatch this place away, make a downpayment.
Unless you’re with SHPlace “A Place in Shanghai” the best brokers on the planet , you should not take the broker’s word for having negotiated the terms successfully with the landlord.
In all cases, ask to make the downpayment directly to the landlord, and sign the agreement at the agency.
If that’s not possible there is another way.
In many Agency’s downpayments are made to the brokerage company.
They will sign an agreement with you.
Make sure it states in the agreement when the landlord will sign this too, 3 days is good rule of thumb for the seller to consider agreeing and picking the money up at the agency.
Of course there are special occasions and you should use your better judgement to give more days to somebody.
Step 2.2
Look through the downpayment agreement.
-Make sure all negotiated terms are stated
including the price, contract sign date and payment steps.
-Get all the valid information before from the seller (prepare your own too).
-Check the breach, usually it’s just what you paid.
Say 50k downpayment, landlord decided not to sell or failed to sign contract at the agreed date they should pay you 100k in compensation. (50 plus 50).
Step 3
Signing the contract.
You want to save time, and I suspect the seller and agent too.
So, have all your things ready and ask the agent to make an appointment with the loan banker too about 1 – 2 hours after the contract signing appointment to get everything done in one go.
As a foreigner you have to have a notary do a few things for you, so ask the broker to make this appointement a little before the contract signing, or the day before just to be sure all is done.
You’ll have to pay him a good chunk of money too, the notary fee for foreigners buying or selling is calculated in percentages and will be around 0.15% and there is a special commie party fee that is 17500 (which you’ll pay at the exchange bureau) for non-standard housing (luxury is non standard for example).
After all that is done get on to signing, if you don’t speak chinese yourself, have somebody there to look through the contract.
There is no such thing as a legal valid English contract (that would be illegal), they printed out in chinese by the exchange bureau by a network linked computer in the agency.
All is done, you signed, and the agent took the ownership from the landlord.
Now you should have three dates
first payment date, main payment date and last payment date you do after everything is handed over (which is usually a very small amount).
Please, make sure the dates are in line with the bank loan payments (which shouldn’t take long at all) and your getting your hands on cash.
Also check how much the breach is.
Most likely you’ll have to sign a “single” paper for the notary stating you’re not married.
It’s quite normal that you pay the broker after the contract is signed already.
Step 3.2
When you make the first payment (after the downpayment) which is usually around 25% of the total have the agent bring a receipt he can co-sign (witness).
Also do this for the 2nd and final payment.
The Final payment is small amount you retain in case there are outstanding bills etc.
Step 4.
When all is ready you’ll meet at the exchange bureau.
Here you will sign over and pay your taxes,
usually, if not agreed differently or changed your taxes will be;
your biggest one will be the 3% property tax which is called the “Qi Shui” Qi meaning Lease, and Shui is tax.
then there is the exchange service tax which will be 2.5 Rmb per square meter.
The Contract tax will be 0.05% of the total
There will be some other small fees (couple of hundred each) and the Communist Party fee of 17500.
So you should expect a total of 3.2% in Taxes (3%+0.15%+0.05%) plus 2.5RMBxsqm, plus 17500 Rmb, plus 1% agency fees and maybe 2000 Rmb in other exchange related fees.
Step 5.
You should get your new ownership certificate after 20 days. Few days more
Use this to change the gas, water, and electricity in your name.
When all is good your ready to pay your retainer and enjoy your property in China.
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