Shanghai surpassed Beijing to become the country's most expensive housing market when its average price per m² surged 16% in 2004 to 6,800 yuan (US$824).
  Some experts say that the Shanghai property market will maintain its upward momentum in the long term. This is mainly because investors from other parts of China and foreign countries are driving up the city's housing market betting on further price rises when Shanghai hosts the World Expo in 2010.
  I was fortunate to buy a new apartment in the downtown in 2000 when the price was only 4,300 yuan per m². Now its price is 13,000 yuan, almost 3 times more. I am expecting the price of my apartment to continuously grow. When the price rises, people sell their surplus apartments at a large profit and buy another new or used apartment (the city's used housing prices are also rising rapidly) for future sale. Driven by the cycle, Shanghai's housing prices are climbing higher and higher, as in other areas in China.
  China's central and local governments are hoping to stem the rise in property prices. The Shanghai municipal government is making more land available for building. This is because lack of land supply in cities is responsible for rocketing property prices. Meanwhile, a 5.55% tax will be levied on profits from sales of housing owned for less than one year to curb speculation, and commercial banks are charging higher interest rates for second or third homes.
  In Shanghai's "high risk, high return" property market, nobody knows when housing prices will fall. Most people expect a further rise, but also are forecasting the date of the decline. If you want adventure, come to the Shanghai property market. May luck be with you.