Real estate agents to compensate landlord for shower incident – and more of Today’s China Real Estate Links | May 16, 2013

Here is a list of the day’s latest China real estate news collected from around the web:

• Real estate agents to compensate landlord for shower incident

  A property management company and a real estate agency have been ordered to pay a woman 1 yuan ($0.16) in compensation and apologize for bringing potential tenants to her home while she was taking a shower, Pudong New Area People’s Court said Tuesday.

  The plaintiff, whom the court called Shi, was in the shower when four strangers entered her apartment in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, in October, a court press release said.

  Shi was shocked and called the police. Police determined that the strangers were a real estate company’s employees and their two clients.

• Shanghai plans new free trade zone in Pudong

  Despite rapid development in the past few years, many die-hard traditionalists in Shanghai still believe in the old adage that a bed in Puxi is preferred to a house in Pudong.

  But this “wilderness” has now become the focus of the city’s future.

  And this isn’t just related to Disneyland, which, when it is completed in 2015, will be part of Pudong New Area’s attractiveness.

  The major driving force is a 10-year plan for Pudong, or the eastern part of Shanghai, that is grander and bolder than anything that has ever been conceived even by overly ambitious Shanghai officials.

• China Economy Still Soft, Sentiment Souring

  China’s economy continues to move sideways and that has some banks revising downward their forecast for year-ending GDP.

  Slow in China, of course, is a bullet train in Europe and the United States. China’s industrial production rose 9.3% from a year earlier in April, up from March’s 8.9%, the country’s National Bureau of Statistics said Tuesday. Retail sales continue to post double digit gains, up 12.8% in April but not enough to temper the bears. China retail sales are up 0.2 percentage points from March at 1.76 trillion yuan ($284 billion).

• China Corporate Debt to Overtake U.S. Within Two Years

  Chinese corporate borrowing will probably exceed that of U.S. companies within the next two years, according to Standard & Poor’s.

  Non-financial institutions from the world’s second-largest economy will need $18 trillion of debt during the five years ending 2017, the ratings company said in a report yesterday. That’s 34 percent of the $53 trillion in bonds and loans S&P estimates will be sought globally and compares with $13 trillion forecast for U.S. companies.

• China to launch offshore renminbi fund

  China is set to push its currency deeper into global capital markets with the launch of the country’s first-ever privately managed fund that invests in offshore renminbi assets.

  Highland Capital Management, a newly formed company backed by the Yunnan provincial government, is seeking to raise up to Rmb15bn ($2.4bn) in its first fund and will focus on investments in southeast Asia.

This list is updated daily, so tune in again tomorrow for more up to date information.