Housing booms may hurt, not heal, local growth

In response to rumors suggesting high house prices had driven it out of Shenzhen, the Chinese tech giant Huawei denied on Monday any plan to relocate its headquarters from the southern city.

After all, the huge success of this Chinese telecommunication company started in Shenzhen, the iconic coastal city that pioneered and epitomizes China's reform and opening-up over the past several decades. In the absence of major changes in corporate ownership or business structure, there is hardly any urgent need to relocate its headquarters from where it survived and thrived.

But Huawei's concerns are real, the local property boom is not only crowding out land supply for industrial use but also eroding its competitiveness in cost control.