China July Home Prices Rise as Big Cities Post Record Gains – and more of Today’s China Real Estate Links | August 19, 2013

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

• China July Home Prices Rise as Big Cities Post Record Gains

  China’s new home prices rose in almost all cities in July, led by gains in the biggest metropolitan centers, amid expectations that the government won’t further tighten property market restrictions.
  Prices climbed in 69 of the 70 cities the government tracked last month from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said in a statement today, matching the data in June and May. The southern business center of Guangzhou posted the biggest gain, rising 17 percent from a year earlier. Prices in Beijing and Shanghai increased 14 percent each. All three cities had their biggest gains since the government changed its methodology for the data in January 2011.
  “It’s unlikely that the government will release a new round of property curbs, even if home prices continued to rise rapidly. The new leadership seems to have a different mentality on property policies,” said Jack Gong, a Hong Kong-based property analyst at Orient Finance Holdings (HK) Ltd., in a phone interview today. “The new government may be less interested in tightening measures but allow the market to play a bigger role.”

• Construction of 565 metre-tall tower begins in Shenyang

  Construction has begun on the supertall tower, Pearl of the North, in Shenyang, China.

  The development, with total investment estimated at over £1bn, consists of two towers, with heights of 565m and 328m. It will be the landmark of Shenyang, the largest city in northeast China.

  The 565m-tall Pearl of the North will become the tallest building in Shenyang. Its design incorporates a pearl, regarded as a symbol of wisdom, luxury and purity in Chinese culture.

• Credit crisis begins to cripple Chinese cities

  As the Chinese economy boomed, few cities soared faster or higher than Shenmu, a community of nearly 500,000 in northwestern China.
  Top luxury clothing stores in this city’s downtown were recording as much as $500,000 a day in sales

  Tables at the best restaurants had to be reserved weeks in advance. The new Fortune Garden Club for the city’s business elite made headlines by paying $1 million for a king-size mahogany bed, to be used by members and their companions.

• Jinan criticised for plan to rebuild historic railway station
  

  Jinan is planning to rebuild its grand old railway station, once the largest in East Asia, 21 years after it was demolished.

  But the move by the Shandong provincial capital has attracted fierce criticism.

  One reason is its sheer expense: the project will cost more than 1.5 billion yuan (HK$1.9 billion) according to the Jinan Daily. Concerns have also been raised about the replacement’s authenticity. The authorities have turned the city’s archives upside down and even tracked down the descendants of the original building’s architect, but failed to find a copy of the blueprints for the structure, completed in 1912. All it has is a few faded photographs.

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