China May Be Ready to Embrace Its Real Estate Boom
Cities big and small are loosening rules to encourage investment
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The media dubbed it the “King of All Sales.” A plot of residential land in Beijing’s Haidian district sold at auction on July 10 for a record 2.63 billion yuan ($413 million), or 33,831 yuan per square meter. That makes it the most expensive tract ever sold in the capital, higher than the previous record set in 2009, when Chinese property was in the middle of a price bubble that started deflating last year.
Judging from the auction, it seems that China’s real estate sector has turned a corner after a nine-month slump—and that Beijing is finally ready to ease up on the strict controls it imposed on property sales when prices were overheating.