ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the rise of the commercial real estate market and its expansion. It starts by examining property rights in commercial real estate. The chapter then discusses the emergence of the commercial real estate market in the 1980s and the expansion in the 1990s, and illustrates the problem of failed projects in the 1990s. It goes on to explore the development of the office, retail, and industrial real estate markets after China's accession to the World Trade Organisation in 1999 and points out that a new round of oversupply looms large in the 2010s. The chapter argues that oversupply has its internal logic in China but warns of the resultant high risks. To provide modern business accommodation to foreign business people, BSGS (Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen) embarked on the development of modern office buildings with both foreign and domestic funding in the 1980s, creating the first batch of foreign investments in Chinese real estate.
