Downtown Shenzhen reaching HK levels

SHENZHEN: Disappointed with his own wait-and-see attitude over the past couple of years, Xie Xiaojian, an account manager with a local public relations firm, finally decided in May to buy a pre-owned apartment in downtown Shenzhen.

But he found repeated attempts by the apartment's owner to raise the price so unbearable that he decided in mid-June to forego the deal altogether.

He said that he tried to bargain for a price of about 9,000 yuan a square meter for a 120-square-meter pre-owned apartment, but the apartment owner soon asked for another 20,000 yuan before they signed the purchase agreement.