Massive sinkhole in Guangzhou swallows buildings – and more of today’s China Real Estate Links | February 1, 2013

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

• Massive sinkhole in Guangzhou swallows buildings

  Look out, below. A massive sinkhole in Guangzhou, China, swallowed up buildings and knocked out power to thousands of residents.
  According to Shanghaiist, the sinkhole is about 3,230 square feet and plenty deep. A video shows a crowd milling about the sinkhole before it expanded, causing a building to crumble as if it were detonated.
  Neighboring buildings were evacuated and streets were blocked by police. “Gas could be smelt from over 30 metres away, and deafening noises could be heard as the land continued to crack and sink,” the Shanghaiist reports.

• Beijing may introduce real-estate tax this year

  The Beijing municipal government may introduce a real estate tax as early as the first half of this year, the China Times reported Thursday, citing an unnamed person close to the Beijing Local Taxation Bureau.

  The tax will be levied on owners of houses with a floor space exceeding 24 square meters per family member, the person said, without disclosing the rate.

• Shanghai land sales start the year on strong note

  SHANGHAI’S land market gained this month with both transaction volume and prices rising from the same period of last year.

  In January, 355,000 square meters of land were sold for 5.15 billion yuan (US$817 million) in the city, a year-on-year increase of 37.7 percent and 96.2 percent, respectively, Soufun.com, China’s largest real estate website operator, said yesterday in a report.

  Nine of the 15 land plots released last month were sold above the asking price. Six of the nine plots fetched 50 percent more than the asking price, Soufun data showed.

This list is updated daily, so tune in again tomorrow for more up to date information, or subscribe to our daily email news digest to get this delivered to your mailbox.