Villa In City's Pudong Area Sells For $20,385/Sq. Meter As 70% Of Shanghai Residents Say Housing Too Expensive#
Whether you think the sky-high housing prices in Beijing and Shanghai are in for a crash, soft landing or natural correction, one thing that's certain is that a small percentage of ultra-rich Chinese don't seem to care at the moment. Though Beijing is currently taking measures to cool speculative purchases and prevent prices from rising too fast, steps which are expected to cause developers to drop prices in the fourth quarter, this week a villa in Shanghai set a new price record, selling for a whopping 138,214 yuan (US$20,385) per square meter.
For reference, that's nearly double the average price per square meter in Manhattan, which currently stands at $11,420.
The 494-square-meter unit, located on Yinliu Road in Zhangjiang, was one of 18 luxury villas launched in mid July. The asking price for the remaining 17 villas - with a gross floor area of between 494 square meters and 669 square meters - is 138,000 yuan [per square meter], according to www.fangdi.com.cn, the city's official real estate website.
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Purchasing power among some Chinese people, particularly the luxury and high-end home buyers, still remains high
," said Sky Xue, an analyst with China Real Estate Information Corp (CRIC), a major real estate information, consulting and online services provider. "And we've seen increasing pressure for a rebound in the housing market, particularly in housing price."
While the super-rich continue to shrug off skyrocketing housing prices, the middle class appears to just be sweating it out. As Shanghai Daily points out, a survey by real estate information portal Soufun found that over 70% of respondents feel that housing in Shanghai is too expensive, with 37% of them adding that prices for houses beyond the city's Outer Ring Road are particularly exorbitant.