The ultimate in speculation? Chinese snap up homes in city bordering North Korea in bet Kim Jong-un will open country up
Dandong city, the traditional gateway to North Korea, recently saw property prices jump 30 per cent in a matter of days as buyers from across China flooded in
Over the weekend before the May 1 public holiday in China, the gritty, somewhat run-down northeastern city of Dandong found itself inundated with people from across the country, armed with ready cash and on the hunt for property.
The reason for the sudden interest in a city not known as a residential hotspot? A perception that North Korea, just across the Yalu River from Dandong, would be opening up to the world after its leader, Kim Jong-un, met his southern counterpart Moon Jae-in at a historic summit at the end of April. That, the thinking went, would allow the border city to profit from its traditional role as gateway to the isolated communist nation.
Such was the interest that house prices rose by more than 30 per cent in just a few days, prompting the city government to impose sales and mortgage restrictions. And prices have remained high and out of reach for locals even as the uncertainty grows over how the North Korean situation will play out.
“It was mostly buyers flying all the way from Guangdong and Zhejiang,” said a property agent at a development by Hong Kong-listed Kaisa Group who gave her name as Lu, referring to China’s wealthier southern and eastern provinces. “One buyer from Zhejiang bought 17 units in one go. They were optimistic over the prospects for North Korea.”