China has made a huge progress forward since it opened its door to the outside world in late 1970's and embraced a market-oriented economy after being ruled under the central controlled system for almost 30 years. Now, with a private home ownership approaching to 60 percent in urban area, China is perhaps the most successful country in the world to have developed a private housing market in such a short period of time. This article is intended to help foreign-based real estate practitioners better understand China and the Chinese market. Issues such as China's economic development, WTO's accession, laws/regulations, mortgages/loans, business forms, government agencies, and taxation system, etc. are addressed along with some statistical data from various resources. |
