China Daily Global Edition (USA)
Successful summit could send property prices soaring
During the weekend, real estate agent Chang Hui worked around the clock showing apartments in Dandong, Liaoning province, to potential buyers from Beijing and Tianjin.
The 20-something said time is of the essence because people want the formalities to be completed by Tuesday. That’s when Kim Jong-un, leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, is scheduled to meet with United States President Donald Trump in Singapore.
“One handshake doubled the housing price, so don’t miss out on the second handshake,” Chang told his clients, referring to the wellpublicized handshake between President Xi Jinping and Kim, when they met in Beijing in March, and the possibility of a similar exchange between Kim and Trump.
When the news that Xi and Kim had met was released on March 28, footage of them shaking hands with smiles on their faces went viral on social media.
That led people in Dandong, a northeastern city that borders the DPRK, to begin discussing the signals sent out by the meeting and how they could profit from them.
One of the first obvious effects was that property prices quickly began to rise in the city’s New District, according to Chang.
On April 20, when Kim announced plans to focus on economic development, some people began to speculate that the DPRK could soon begin to open up to the outside world. The rumors sent property prices spiraling even higher.
“The price of apartments in one property doubled to 6,000 yuan ($937) per square meter from 3,000 in just three days, while the best apartments, those overlooking the DPRK, were fetching more than 10,000 yuan per sq m,” Chang said.
He added that most of the buyers came from out of town and were using the Labor Day break to travel in search of property.
According to the local government, the number of people viewing properties in the New District rose significantly from the end of April. Some popular properties received 200 people a day, but only about 30 percent of the viewers were Dandong residents.
However, the number of viewers fell sharply after the holiday, when people began returning home.
The rampant speculation saw housing prices in Dandong top the chart for price rises in April. In response, the city government introduced a series of real estate control measures in the New District on May 14.
Despite the new measures, prices will rise again if the meeting between Kim and Trump is successful, because it would be another sign that the DPRK is making progress, said Chang, who claims he is now an expert on DPRK issues because they are essential to his job.
Dandong New District is close to the New ChinaDPRK Friendship Bridge, which is about 12 kilometers downstream of the original 940-meter-long crossing that was opened in 1943.
Construction of the new bridge, which is about 2 km long and six times wider than the old one, was completed in 2014.
However, the lack of a connecting road on the DPRK side of the river means the new bridge has still not been opened. If one stands on the riverbank close to the bridge in Dandong, patches of wild grass are all that can be seen flourishing on the other side of the river.
In 2011, the Dandong government moved to office complexes in the New District, which is expected to become a key economic driver and the city’s new center.
One handshake doubled the housing price, so don’t miss out on the second handshake.”
referring to the March handshake between President Xi Jinping and Kim Jong-un, and the possibility of a similar exchange between Kim and Donald Trump on Tuesday
Relator Chang Hui,