Beijing Real Estate

Above: Workers Inside Arena at GongTiBeiLu Avenue seen from Sun City Apartments. Beijing views photo gallery below.


Beijing Real Estate Market in Change
PICTORIAL - FROM GOVERNMENT SPONSORED TO PRIVATE

Beijing is facing rapid change from government sponsored housing towards private ownership. Government is stepping out of being developer and taking regulator's role, towards executing laws.

Quality of construction is improving, some even close to international standards. New middle-class gets their first own homes. Secondary market for real estates is also emerging.

There are no standards, and no transparency in managing private apartment houses. It is great challenge to modernize Beijing house managements which are famous for their past times service mentality and lack of education. This opens business opportunities for house management companies from Hong Kong and Singapore to help Beijing towards modern way of living.


BeijingMan aka Kippo

List of BeijingMan Postings

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All pictures in this post are from Beijing, taken during past few years. Click to enlarge.


Above-1: Beijing views. Swissotel and Poly Plaza Hotel/Showroom.


Above-2 BEFORE OLYMPICS: Near Workers Stadium. House on back-down-left is already taken down, the other got new Olympic roof and paint, see next picture.


Above-3 REFURBISHED FOR OLYMPICS: Near Workers Stadium. This house used to be that betony box in picture 2. Thanks to Olympic Games 2008, house got Olympic roof and new look. Hundreds of houses have been refurbished with Olympic roof.


Above-4 BEFORE OLYMPICS: Beijing views. Workers Stadium.


Above-5: Beijing views. City Hotel.


Above-6: Beijing views.


Above-7: Beijing views. Sun City Apartments.


Above-8: Beijing views. From Sun City towards East.


Above-9: Beijing views. Kenzo offices/apartments, East Ring-2.


Above-10: Beijing views. Near Kenzo.


Above-11: Beijing views. Season's Park Apartments, North of Sun City.


Above-12: Beijing views.


Above-13: Beijing views. GongTiBeiLu Avenue. Old picture, this house was like this for over five years. 2008 it was finalized for office use.


Above-14: Beijing views. Beijing Sun City Apartments, Yang Guang Dushi, built in 2000-2002. Good location near Workers Stadium, some apartments with reasonable layouts. My friend invested in Sun City. Neighboring Season's Park Apartments would have given 30% better return for his investment, key reason being professional house management in Season's Park: they know how to guard the property value (and have only 1,3RMB.m2 higher management fee than Sun City).

With 800 apartments, Beijing Sun City is an example of conflict between past times who-cares attitude and emerging Chinese modern city life. Sun City families have nearly 200 companies among them: offices, service companies, even factories. It's a conflict between middle class families who bought apartments as their home, SMEs which have rented apartments for business use, landlords who want money, and incompetent house management.

Forget the nice part of Chinese culture, reality is no rights and no respect. One landlord, an old woman who lives in Sun City, teached my friend after 10 weeks of drilling noise, dust spreading, chemical smell, and smoking/spitting persons hanging in corridors: "We have suffered, it's ok for others to suffer, too". Arrogance has become new common behavior.

In Sun City, a single SME apartment can have tens of office workers. For Chinese SMEs, apartment means cost saving, cheaper rent, and cheaper electricity/water compared to real office. At the same time Beijing has problem with empty office buildings everywhere.

Apartment companies do massive, almost continuous repairs as quality is poor. Floor drillings are a loss-loss especially for children. Workers can drill even during nights, house management would not interrupt. This is China is often repeated defence ...so what you gonna do about it! My friend knows Sun City family who moved to hotel at their own cost, while layered floor was built to an apartment factory.

On surface Beijing life looks modern. But China is till a developing country with very different mentality, example: pesticide gas into lifts and corridors without informing. Nice going. First generation of Beijing middle class don't have it easy.


Above-15: Beijing views. Diplomatic apartments at East Ring-2 near main avenue crossing.


Above-16: Beijing views. Left, Guanhua Lu road. Far middle, WTC.


Above-17: Beijing views.


Above-18: Beijing views. Ring-2 in South Beijing.


Above-19: Beijing views. JianGuoMenNei/East Ring-2.


Above-20: Beijing views. International Club. Right, St.Regis Hotel.


Above-21: Beijing views. At Ring-2.


Above-22: Beijing views. Apartment houses at South Ring-2 near Carrefour retail.


Above-23: Beijing views. Asian Hotel, FuHua Mansion, Swissotel Hotel.


Above-24: Beijing views. Near Workers Stadium.


Above-25: Beijing views. Near Workers Stadium.


Above-26: Beijing views. JianTaiLu, this street has a lot of trees coming through roofs.


Above-27: Beijing views. Trees and houses.


Above-28: Beijing views. Old goes near SanLiTun bar street.


Above-29: Beijing views. Old goes at SanLiTun bar street.


Above-30: Beijing views. Old goes at SanLiTun bar street.


Above-31: Beijing views.


Above-32: Beijing views. Workers houses.


Above-33: Beijing views. North of Season's Park.


Above-34: Beijing views. Season's Park Apartments, beside Sun City. Season's Park has better house management.


Above-35: Beijing views. Financial Street, JinRongJie at North Ring-2.


Above-36: Beijing views. JinRongJie at North Ring-2.


Above-37: Beijing views. This beauty is Lao YiJiChuang Factory, already taken down already. Old Factory No.1


Above-38: Beijing views. This beauty is Lao YiJiChuang Factory, already taken down.


Above-39: Beijing views. Lao YiJiChuang Factory.


Above-40: Beijing views. Fire at LaiTai Flower Market, East Ring-3. Three people died. This picture is from January 2002.


Above-41: Beijing views. East Gate Apartment towers, East Ring-2.


Above-42: Beijing views. China Life Tower, insurance company, near Foreign Ministry and Fulllink, East Ring-2.


Above-43: Beijing views. Car sales in suburb. Beijing gets 1600 new cars and trucks per day (March 2009) and will soon have 4M cars.


Above-44: Beijing views. COFCO Plaza seen from South.


Above-45: Beijing views.


Above-46: Beijing views. Friendship Store and diplomatic area behind it.


Above-47: Beijing views. JianGuoMenWai part of main avenue. Left, CITIC building, earliest foreign business tower. Right, China Radio tower.


Above-48: Beijing views.


Above-49: Beijing views. Glory International Apartments South of Workers Stadium. Glory has professional house management.


Above-50: Beijing views. Poly Plaza and East Gate Apartments.


Above-51: Beijing views. Near East Ring-3.


Above-52: Beijing views. East of FuHua Mansion at Ring-2.


Above-53: Beijing views.


Above-54: Beijing views.


Above-55: Beijing views. New apartments, in South-East Beijing.


Above-56: Beijing views. South-East Beijing. A school?


Above-57: Beijing views. Friendship Store at main avenue. Left, old CITIC building.


Above-58: Beijing views. City Hotel at GongTiBeiLu Avenue near Workers Stadium.


Above-59: Beijing views. View from 12th floor of Hilton Hotel towards East. Left, Microsoft Tower.


Above-60: Beijing views. View from 12th floor of Hilton Hotel.


Above-61: Beijing views. View from 12th floor of Hilton Hotel, towards East.


Above-62: Beijing views. View towards East from 12th floor of Hilton Hotel. Behind red-white striped houses is new U.S. Embassy.


Above-63: Beijing views. Winery in South-East Beijing.


Above-64: Beijing views. Red Hotel at ChunXiuLu road - Beautiful Spring road, near Workers Stadium. 75 rooms, renovated for Olympics.


Above-65: Beijing views. JingGuang Center - BeiJing-GuangZhou Center at East Ring-3.


Above-66: Beijing views. Seasons Park Apartments.


Above-67: Beijing views. Speed train bridge to Tianjin.


Above-68: Beijing views. South-East Beijing.


Above-69: Beijing views. New SanLiTun.


Above-70: Beijing views. FuHua Office Towers, East Ring-2.


Above-71: Beijing views. Shin Kong Place shopping mall near WTC area.


Above-72: Beijing views. Near Sogo Department Store.


Above-73: Beijing views. HongQiao market.


Above-74: Beijing views. China Petroleum headquarters at East Ring-2.


Above-75: Beijing views. Hotel Pure & Elegant, not far from WangFujing Shopping street.


Above-76: Beijing views. CNOOC oil headquarters, East Ring-2. Beijingers call this building "golden toilet seat".


Above-77: Beijing views. The Place which has giant LCD panel on top of walking street. Near Silk Street and Workers Stadium.


Above-78: Beijing views. Ring-2 from Swissotel towards South.


Above-79: Beijing views. New Poly Plaza opposite to old Poly and Swissotel Hotel, Ring-2 East.


Above-80: Beijing views. JinRongJie Shopping Mall.


Above-81: Beijing views. Golden Resources Shopping Mall, "JinYuan" in Beijing West. One of the biggest.


Above-82: Beijing views. Olympic toilet in GongTiBeiLu Avenue near Workers Stadium.


Above-83: Beijing views. Middle, Sun City Apartments. Sides, Season's Park Apartments.


Above-84: Beijing views. Macalline Home Furniture Center, East Ring-4. In this area also Beijing Outlets (not small), Wal-Mart, Parkson etc.


Above-85: Beijing views. Piazza Italia, excellent food, near Shin Kong shopping mall East of East Ring-3.


Above-86: Beijing views. Soho, offices for SMEs. East of East Ring-3. Several SOHOs in Beijing, this is the old one.


Above-87: Beijing views. Main avenue towards east from East Ring-3.


Above-88: Beijing views. Main avenue East from Ring-2. Towers (left) are WTC Beijing.

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© BeijingMan aka Kippo 2008, 2009