The property market
Cat and house
Soaring house prices continue to pose a political problem for China’s leaders
May 4th 2013 | SHANGHAI | From the print edition
1??ASK ordinary people about their own Chinese dream, and you find owning a home is high on the list. But years of rising house prices have put that dream out of reach of many. A slowing economy appeared to take some of the heat out. Now, alas1, the residential property market is soaring again (see chart). A new survey of developers and property firms on May 2nd showed average house prices up more than 5% in April on a year earlier.
????Words and Phrases|單詞短語(yǔ)
- alas?n.?You use alas to say that you think that the facts you are talking about are sad or unfortunate. （表示悲傷、憐憫等）哎呀，唉
2??Taking the long view, rising property values seem defensible. The country is undergoing the largest wave of urbanisation in human history and homes must be built for all of those new city dwellers. The existing housing stock is poor, so people upgrade to modern homes as soon as they can afford them. Local governments earn a lot of money from land sales to developers and investors have few other places to park their money. All that suggests upward pressure on prices is not going away.
3??But even if you accept those long-term arguments, says Alistair Thornton of IHS, a consultancy, the market right now looks increasingly as if it is becoming detached2 from the fundamentals, as speculators looking for an investment swamp buyers looking for somewhere to live. Many flats sit vacant despite legions3 of prospective buyers desperately seeking affordable housing. Capital Economics, a research firm, estimates that investment in residential property accounted for 8.8% of China’s GDP in 2012.
????Words and Phrases|單詞短語(yǔ)
- detach?v.?If you detach one thing from another that it is fixed to, you remove it. If one thing detaches from another, it becomes separated from it.拆卸;(使)分開(kāi);(使)分離
- legion?n.?A legion of people or things is a great number of them. 眾多麻养；大批飘哨；大量
4??The alarm bells are being rung in unexpected quarters. Wang Shi, the charismatic4 boss of Vanke, China’s biggest property developer, would seem to have more to gain than most from further price rises, yet he too warns of a looming “disaster.” The plunge in prices that would result from a pricking of this bubble, he declared on “60 Minutes”, an American television programme, could lead to popular protests on the scale of the recent Arab uprisings.
????Words and Phrases|單詞短語(yǔ)
- charismatic?adj.?A charismatic person attracts, influences, and inspires people by their personal qualities. 有魅力的;有感召力的
5??China’s new leaders <u>are keenly attuned to</u> such concerns and are trying hard to <u>head off</u> the danger. The ruling State Council and the country’s central bank have issued numerous decrees5 in recent weeks designed to dampen the market and to crack down on speculation. Among these are larger down-payments and higher mortgage rates for people buying second homes and a reminder to local governments that a 20% capital-gains tax on second-home sales must be enforced.
????Words and Phrases|單詞短語(yǔ)
- decree?n.?A decree is an official order or decision, especially one made by the ruler of a country. 法令;政令
- be attuned to?adj.?If you are attuned to something, you can understand and appreciate it. 適應(yīng)的;理解的;與…合拍的
- head off?adj.?If you head something off, especially something unpleasant, you take action before it is expected to happen in order to prevent it from happening. 阻止狗超，防止（尤指不愉快的事）發(fā)生
6??But plenty of central-government edicts6 are ignored. The capital-gains tax on resales, for example, was only rarely levied in the past. Ren Zhiqiang, boss of Hua Yuan Real Estate Group, another property giant, recently denounced the country’s policies. The central government’s message to local officials, he claimed, could be described as: “We hope prices won’t continue rising; you go and fix them; and if you don’t fix them, we will punish you.”
????Words and Phrases|單詞短語(yǔ)
- edict?n.?An edict is a command or instruction given by someone in authority. 法令
7??Most local officials do not want to implement such curbs with any rigour. On the contrary, encouraging a property boom keeps much-needed tax revenues flowing and <u>puffs up</u> the local economic growth figures on which their chances of promotion hang. This misalignment7 of incentives, argues Mr Thornton, explains why “it’s always a cat-and-mouse game between local and central authorities”.
????Words and Phrases|單詞短語(yǔ)
- misalignment?n.?錯(cuò)位
- puff up?adj.?If part of your body puffs up as a result of an injury or illness, it becomes swollen. 膨脹
8??Clearing up this mess will be difficult, but not impossible. A good start would be to introduce a property tax, imposed annually, that is based on the market value of a home. That would reduce speculation, discourage owners from holding empty flats and provide a fresh source of funding for cash-strapped local governments. That should reassure officials whose path to the senior ranks of the party is connected to their ability to enrich their districts (and perhaps themselves) along the way.
9??The perverse incentives the party clings to and the absence of policies to discourage speculation often end up crushing the dreams of would-be home owners. The solution probably starts with the central government recognising that local officials have their dreams, too.
????Structure Analysis|結(jié)構(gòu)分析
-
初步引入
1.首先說(shuō)明買(mǎi)房是中國(guó)人的夢(mèng)想之一丝格，引入了放假過(guò)高這一主題唠梨。 -
具體介紹
2/3.具體說(shuō)明現(xiàn)在中國(guó)正在進(jìn)行城市化算芯，然而現(xiàn)實(shí)是很多需要買(mǎi)房的人卻買(mǎi)不起空置的房屋柒昏，而政府卻從房地產(chǎn)中獲取了大量的利益。
4/5.說(shuō)明近期的房?jī)r(jià)引起了地產(chǎn)商以及中央的擔(dān)憂并做出相關(guān)舉措熙揍。 -
深入分析
6/7.事實(shí)上法律法規(guī)得不到很好的執(zhí)行职祷，本地政府相反鼓勵(lì)房?jī)r(jià)的提升以獲取利益。 -
評(píng)析總結(jié)
8/9.當(dāng)下的方法則是政府出臺(tái)稅法以及政府通過(guò)升遷制度的改變來(lái)實(shí)現(xiàn)對(duì)房?jī)r(jià)的控制届囚。
????Complicated Sentences|長(zhǎng)難句
- But even if you accept those long-term arguments, says Alistair Thornton of IHS, a consultancy, the market right now looks increasingly as if it is becoming detached from the fundamentals, as speculators looking for an investment swamp buyers looking for somewhere to live.
- 先是一個(gè)讓步狀語(yǔ)從句有梆，主句the market right now looks increasingly后面接著兩個(gè)賓語(yǔ)從句，形象的表現(xiàn)出投機(jī)者與買(mǎi)房者的區(qū)別意系，形成對(duì)比泥耀。
- On the contrary, encouraging a property boom keeps much-needed tax revenues flowing and puffs up the local economic growth figures on which their chances of promotion hang.
- 首先是動(dòng)名詞作為主語(yǔ)，接著用了兩個(gè)短語(yǔ)keep... flowing和puff up描述了相關(guān)情況昔字，句尾為一個(gè)定語(yǔ)從句修飾growth figures爆袍。
