China Real Estate Market Hits First Bump in 17 Months – and more of Today’s China Real Estate Links | August 15, 2013

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

• China Real Estate Market Hits First Bump in 17 Months

  China’s market for homes cooled down a bit in July with sales down on a yearly basis after rising for 17 consecutive months, a report said.

  New residential property transactions across the nation’s 30 major cities slid 9.7 percent year-on-year in July to 14.77 million square meters, ending a 17-month rising streak, the latest E-house China R&D Institute report showed.

• Millionaire’s Rooftop Villa Felled by Neighbor Complaints

  A bizarre villa built among what looks like piles of rocks and trees on top of a 26-storey Beijing apartment building faces demolition within 15 days, local authorities said.

  An order seen by AFP Tuesday, issued by a branch of the Chinese capital’s urban management bureau, was posted on the door of a top-floor apartment in the block.

  It gave the owner of the structure — which covers 800 square metres (8,608 sq feet) of rooftop — to destroy it or give authorities an explanation within 15 days of Monday’s date. Otherwise, a forced demolition will be carried out.

• Shanghai Tower Just the Latest (and Biggest) of China’s Skyscrapers

  Look out of any window in any city in China, and chances are you will see a crane.

  Even as China’s economic growth slows, the country’s builders are still hard at work. And although they are mostly putting up garden-variety 30-story apartment and office blocks, they are also indulging a national passion for really tall skyscrapers.

  Just last weekend, construction workers “topped out” the Shanghai Tower, finishing the second tallest building in the world. Throughout the country, 269 buildings more than 650 feet tall are going up at the moment.

• Chinese Man Receives Greece’s First Investor Visa for Real Estate Buy

  Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras’ plan to lure people with money to the country by offering them residency permits for buying properties worth more than 250,000 euros ($331,600) has its first recipient: a Chinese national who bought an apartment in Attica.

  The contract was signed under the new investment law 4146/2013, which provides the granting of residence permits to non-EU citizens if they meet the benchmark set for property acquisitions.

• China Plans Faster Capacity Cuts Even as Growth Slows

  China will push ahead with efforts to cull excess industrial capacity a year earlier than planned even as economic expansion slows, and will promote spending on information products to stabilize growth, an official said.

  The government will complete by the end of 2014 its overcapacity reduction plan for the five years through 2015, and will seek to cut further outdated capacity, China National Radio said yesterday, citing Industry Minister Miao Wei.

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