Typically the Chinese government gets slammed for inflating economist statistics, but in this case there's suspicious they're doing just the opposite.

According to China Daily, the official home price increase for 2009 was a mere 1.5%.

A reader writes to say that Chinese are baffled at the news, and a China Daily commenter believes the number is a total lie, as well.

http://www.businessinsider.com/chinese- ... ces-2010-2

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2010 ... 508108.htm

Well of course it's a lie. If I only look in my neighborhood, the area around Century park and Jinqiao, we have seen an increase since June 2009 of between 25 - 60% for the same crappy old real estate.

It's like the 'average' price per sq metre for property in Shanghai. Much MUCH lower than reality. The reason for this is cash deals. The real estate agents are encouraging buyers/sellers to make cash deals to avoid paying tax etc. So the 'value' of the property may look like 1,000,000 rmb when in fact it's 2,000,000. I was told this by a local guy who owns 5 properties in Shanghai.

Seems like a crude attempt by the government to try to stop the property bubble. If they reported that prices rose by 40% in the year then how many more people would borrow money to speculate in already overpriced property? Could all end in tears.

I don't know if anyone was aware of this but many MANY real estate people were literally whoring themselves in front of their stores in January. I noticed this and mentioned it to a Chinese friend and he smiled like I was dumb. 'Yeah' he said, 'the government introduce things to slow buying/selling, then change the rules again in a matter of days to encourage it'. The CCP is all powerful really. If any govt can totally control a bubble they can.

ziccawei wrote:I don't know if anyone was aware of this but many MANY real estate people were literally whoring themselves in front of their stores in January. I noticed this and mentioned it to a Chinese friend and he smiled like I was dumb. 'Yeah' he said, 'the government introduce things to slow buying/selling, then change the rules again in a matter of days to encourage it'. The CCP is all powerful really. If any govt can totally control a bubble they can.

you make a serious point here, can call wolf, but ccp may catch it
central government has it's benefits

centralized power without checks and balances and media transparency just doesn't work in the long run, but it's fun while it lasts.