Need somewhere to store your wealth and maybe even make a healthy profit?
Millions of Chinese have been buying up homes with the same enthusiasm once common among U.S. home buyers. With few investment options for many middle class Chinese, residential properties have become a great option to store wealth. Even while the global financial crisis in 2008 gripped many nations, China's housing market was virtually unaffected.
But home prices have arguably reached bubble territory and China's government has been on high alert. Officials have intensified efforts to cool the market -- from raising the minimum down payment for second-home purchases to levying taxes on residences in Shanghai and Chongqing this year. Even while China's central bank hiked interest rates twice this year and raised mortgage rates for multiple home buyers, it remains to be seen where prices will go -- a soft landing, a disastrous crash or perhaps somewhere in between?
NEXT: Singapore
