LOCAL investors have shown great interest in buying overseas housing which in many cases is cheaper than that in the domestic market, according to Chinese-language media reports.
An overseas housing property promotion in Shenzhen on Saturday received positive feedback from investors, Shenzhen Economic Daily reported yesterday. The promotion covered houses and luxury apartments.
The houses in Detroit, which sold for unbelievably low prices, received the most attention from the investors.
A 130-square-meter second-hand house in Detroit had an asking price of less than 300,000 yuan (US$45,660), only one-10th of the local price, the paper said.
Purchasing contracts were signed on 14 houses in Detroit at the promotion.
A woman with the promotion organizer, Zhi, said her company would work as an agent to complete all the purchasing procedures so buyers did not need to go to Detroit.
Zhi promised good returns for the buyers of Detroit houses.
Shenzhen had the biggest potential in overseas housing investment among its domestic counterparts, according to the company which organized the promotion. The company claimed that it had set up branches in many domestic cities.
However, some investors chose to act cautiously.
An investor, Li, said although housing in Detroit was at such a low price, he would not rush to sign a purchasing contract due to his ignorance of Detroit and the fact that he had not visited the property in person.
I need to wait and see, Li said.
Li s caution was shared by many potential investors attending the promotion. There are different housing law systems in the Unites States and China, so risks are still there despite low prices in Detroit, said Zhou Binping, manager of the Shenzhen branch of a U.S.-based leasing company.
Zhou said Detroit, an old industrial city in the United States, was not livable, which would make it extremely hard to sell or rent housing there.
Zhou said 25 percent of Detroit s housing was left idle due to its cold weather, undesirable environment and a high rate of crime in the years following the global economic crisis.
In addition, legal experts cautioned that there was a high cost of housing maintenance in the United States.
People needed to pay no less than US$3,000 in property tax each year for a 130-square-meter house in Detroit, they said.
(Li Hao)
