Down to Business Office Blocks Wait for WTO: On the Rebound Office Market Ready to Bounce Back

One of the most noticeable transformations in Beijing during the past decade has been the rapid development of office buildings. Those who have not been in Beijing for a few years are frequently startled on the ride from the airport by the conspicuous changes in the cityscape. A far cry from Beijing's pre-reform era Soviet-style concrete buildings.

Buy Now While Stocks Last: Foreign Housing Market Rises, Falls, will Rise Again?

In less than 10 years, the Beijing real estate market has become polarized between a few popular real estate projects and the many that flounder. During the early 1990s, foreigners clamored to find residential and office space in a market that was greatly under-supplied. "People were lining up and begging for space from ...

No Place Like Home

Of all the ongoing reforms in China, the commercialization of the country's housing sector promises some of the most fundamental changes to the way Chinese people live and think. For the first time in nearly half a century, the state is passing responsibility for shelter back to the individual. Given a nation raised with a tenant/dependant mentality ...

Life is Luxury for Expats

Whatever the Washington Post says, this is a great time to be a foreigner working in Beijing. Although restrictions on where foreigners can live remain in force, expats with good jobs can look at a luxury apartment rental market where prices have fallen by an average of around 50 percent since their peak in 1995. And that trend looks set to ...

Good Day at the Office?

Developers and landlords are cutting each others throats to draw office business. Perspectives on the Beijing office market vary widely--developers or investors are likely to pull a long face if questioned, while tenants can be expected to be all smiles. A frenzy of construction since 1996 has already left the market vastly oversupplied ...