"China stepped up a three-year campaign to cool home prices in March. The government strengthened its efforts by raising down-payment and mortgage requirements. It also levied a first-ever property tax in Shanghai and Chongqing and enacted purchase restrictions in about 40 cities. Nonetheless, prices of Chinese homes posted their biggest gain in nearly two years in June. Buyers dodged government restrictions on homeownership by using false divorces, fake marriages, falsified proof of tax payments and even buying office space as residences."
"Prices surged 7.4 percent last month from a year earlier to 10,258 yuan ($1,671) per square meter (10.76 square feet), according to SouFun Holdings Limited (NYSE: SFUN), the nation’s biggest real estate website owner."
"Based on the house price to wage ratio compiled by the International Monetary Fund, or IMF, China's large cities have the most expensive real estate in the world. Beijing is particularly expensive, as party officials deploy their "hard-earned" cash. The numbers mean that it would take an average Beijinger 22.3 years of earnings to pay off their mortgage. Real estate accounted for 12.4 percent of China’s total output in 2012."
