I know that a few people here have bought property in Shanghai so it would be nice to see if anyone has ideas about the current state of the market as I'm considering buying.

An estate agent friend of mine has said that many places have dropped between 10-30% in the last year and other people have said that there could be further to good. Added to that all the empty apartments presumably bought on the basis that they could be rented out then there seems to be an over supply in some places.

So now is a good time to buy as prices have fallen, or a bad time as they will fall yet further, or anything else?

I'm sure most of you have seen the "iPhone 4 bears" cartoon - it's been linked-to from these boards previously.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bcryQUuDwM (for those with a VPN)
http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1938055 (for those without)

My recent discussions with locals about the state of the Shanghai property market run along roughly the same lines.

Me: The Chinese property market is a classic bubble. It will collapse sooner or later.
Local: Property is such a great investment. It will always go up.
Me: Property here is way overpriced by any indicator - comparisons with overseas markets; price:rental-return ratio; repayment:average annual income ratio; and so on.
Local: It's so cool to own your own place. Everyone needs to have a place.
Me: You can rent places here that are relatively good value. Why expose yourself to such an obvious bubble?
Local: Property will never go down. It will always go up in value.
Me: You only say that because you have never experienced a market collapse in this country, at least, not in your lifetime.
Local: But property will always go up. Always.
Me: You're not listening. All bubbles collapse. It's just a question of when.
Local: No, Shanghai property is such a good investment.
Me: Don't you understand? If you take out a loan for 70% of the purchase price of some badly-built, empty concrete shell in a bumf0ck satellite town 50km past the outer ring road where nobody wants to live, in 5 years you will be trapped with a loan twice or three times the size of your equity!
Local: Shanghai property is such a good investment. I want my husband to give me an apartment.
Me: Only a complete f0cking idiot would buy into such a ridiculously overheated market.
Local: Do you have an apartment? I want an apartment. Jing'an or Xuhui is OK. Do you have an apartment there? If you do, I'll marry you tomorrow.
Me: I wouldn't marry a complete moron like you in a pink fit. I'm only tolerating this conversation because I want to f0ck you later tonight.
Local: Sure, do you have an apartment? My parents say I have to find a man with an apartment.
Me: Why the f0ck am I even continuing to talk to you, you imbecile?
Local: Shanghai property is so great. I want to find a man with an apartment.
Me: That's it. I'm going to kill you now. See this AK-47? When you absolutely, positively gotta kill every mothafokka in the room. Accept no substitutes.
Local: did you say you have an apartment here? Let's go there now.
Me: [loads and locks, points, shoots self by mistake]
Local: Do you have an apartment? Hey, do you have... Why is your head doing that spurting thing?