As the mainland's second-tier cities continue to flourish on the back of the country's red-hot economy, more people are looking west for opportunities, and Chongqing is among the prime targets.
With a population of 31million, China's fourth self-governed municipality (after Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin) has traditionally lagged the country's largest cities in housing prices, but this is slowly changing.
Rapid growth in Chongqing's real estate sector means more out-of-town investors are flocking to the economic locomotive of China's western region in search of bargains.
According to the Chongqing Land Resource and Housing Administration Bureau, last year the average house price in the city increased 4.25 per cent from a year earlier, to a median of 2,697 yuan a square metre.
Chongqing's residential prices are only about 30 per cent of those in Shanghai and about 10 per cent of Hong Kong's.
At a government economic conference late last year, researchers forecast that housing prices would continue to rise on a projected gross domestic product growth of 11 per cent through 2007.
