For months and months and months and months, my law firm had not been involved in a single China commercial real estate deal. Not one. Sure, we assisted a foreigner or two in buying (or selling) a condo in which to live, but nothing at all on the investment front. Now, just in the last month, we are in the midst of a number of such deals (for a number of clients old and new) and
I read the news and the news says commercial property (retail, office, industrial, etc.) is not selling in China. And I know all real estate is local, but our new deals are in cities where the news clearly applies.
All of our new deals involve foreigners taking out very very long term leases (rather than "buying") office buildings in need of renovation in great locations. All of these deals involve fairly small buildings (certainly small by China standards) owned by Chinese developers who want out. Our clients are small to mid-sized foreign developers who have their "own people" standing by to do the work necessary to renovate and upgrade these buildings (for between $3 and $8 million) and all of them have already lined up some foreign businesses who want to move in.
