Shanghai Is Now the Most Expensive City in the World | Hacker News Reader

Shanghai Is Now the Most Expensive City in the World

forbes.com

42 pointsgscott11 comments

> Such is the amount of private wealth in Shanghai that exclusive purchases there are now more expensive than anywhere else in the world

That’s an awfully misleading headline.

... if you're a "high-net-worth individual" who wants to live a life of expensive luxury.

For the average Shanghainese, that's not terribly relevant. GDP per capita reached $23,000 this year https://www.yicaiglobal.com/news/shanghai-per-capita-gdp-top... which is roughly where Saudi Arabia and Portugal were in 2019 https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.CD?most_rec...

I seriously doubt that is true.

Well, properties are the only allowed investment - besides the notorious unstable internal stock-market and thus a huge speculation bubble is existing, while everyone half-way well off is trying to bring their money to safety abroad - be it through crypto, company internal fund transfers or investment in properties elsewhere.

If there was for a moment, free markets and free trade, Shanghai would be empty, all that money drained out into the world, wherever there is stability and rule of law.

>If there was for a moment, free markets and free trade, Shanghai would be empty, all that money drained out into the world, wherever there is stability and rule of law.

There's plenty of stability and rule of law in Shanghai, more so than in most other places, and just last year China became the biggest destination for FDI[1] for the first time in decades. Investment from the US is accelerating by the way. So if even foreigners decide to put their money into China voluntarily I have trouble imagining why you think there's a lack of free markets in this regard. Chin's still growing rapidly and money goes where it expects the largest rate of return, generally speaking.

[1]https://www.wsj.com/articles/china-overtakes-u-s-as-worlds-l...

> wherever there is stability and rule of law

You misspelled de-regulation that favors corporate entities over people.

Tokyo has the most deregulated property market of any major city in the world. Housing prices haven’t increased in 25 years.

China is deregulated, you can get away with anything, as long as the party is properly bribed and you do not challenge its power. Its just that whatever you build, whatever you accomplish, will never be yours, will never be safe as long as it is within the borders.

I would imagine most Uighurs would be pretty excited for what you refer to as deregulation.

is Shanghai here referring to the city limits or something akin to what the US calls a Metropolitan Statistical Area? From a recent visit there it seemed to me that the hinterlands of Shanghai are endlessly expanding with insta-exurb developments centered around cores of flashy* high-rise districts.

* literally. the complex full-wrap digital illumination effects on many of these buildings would turn heads even in Vegas

Most likely a very large discrepancy between the rich and poor?

Hong Kong’s poor is around 30% of the population under the poverty line or something like that? Here’s an older article saying 20% but was a few years back https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/20/hong-kong-20-o...

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