Shanghai exec finds US land cheaper than Chinese KFC
The keys to your new apartment in the United States are closer than you think.
Shrewd Shanghainese might have found a smart resolution to the soaring real estate market.
One Shanghai executive recently purchased a 1,000-square-meter plot in Florida for US$8,800 via an Internet auction organized by Chinese real estate website Soufun.com (搜房网), reported Guangzhou Daily.
The buyer, who wishes to go by the pseudonym Ye Zi (叶子), is a female human resources officer at a Shanghai manufacturing company.
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Ye Zi was attracted to the auction page on Soufun.com by an Internet banner reading: “Let’s go to the United States and be a landlord.”
After bidding for the land together with 70 other netizens, Ye Zi obtained the right to purchase the land, which is on Greenbriar Boulevard near Miami.
The unit price for Ye Zi’s new property is RMB 57.2 per square meter, a fraction of the average property price in Shanghai, and is even cheaper than a KFC family combo in China -- which costs RMB 65.
Zhuang Nuo (庄诺), chairman and general manager of Soufun.com, said that that Soufun set up the auction after a U.S. real estate investment company, United Solutions of American, entrusted it to find new owners.
Ye Zi and her husband signed the land-purchase agreement with United Solutions of American on July 19, and are currently waiting to receive the official title deeds.
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Ye Zi is not the only Chinese who’s shifted her attention to overseas properties.
The country has witnessed a boom of individuals purchasing foreign land since late 2010, due to excessive local property prices and the convenience of overseas study and family immigration.
Chinese buyers now account for 10 percent of the overseas property purchasers in London and 29 percent of overall property purchasers in Vancouver.
Zhuang Nuo told the press that one anonymous netizen bought 20 plots in the United States during another online auction Soufun organized in late July.
According to various Chinese media, the top overseas property investment destinations for Chinese are: the United States, Australia, Canada, United Kingdom, Canada, Singapore and Malaysia.
