When Xing Gang walked into the sales office of the Olympic Village real-estate project on Monday afternoon, he was pleased to find he was the only visitor.

An artist's impression of Dream World 2008.

But he was soon set right. Exuding the confidence of success, the sales executive told him there were only about 20 left in the first phase of the sales period and the average price would rise about 2,000 yuan ($250) per square meter during the next period.

The location map of Dream World 2008 Cover page infographics by Kun Tian.

The current average price of about 16,800 yuan ($2000) per square meter has not proved a barrier for wealthy customers like Xing, who want to live in the Olympic Village.

To host a viable Games, the Olympic Village will be turned into a housing project after the Games, called the Dream World 2008 (Guo Ao Village).

The first phase of the sales includes 342 apartments ranging from 120 to 300 square meters, most of which are over 200 square meters.

And on Monday, the only apartments available for Xing were bigger than 200 square meters.

Since late December, over 160 apartments have been purchased within a month, with the total sales volume about 700 million yuan ($87 million). The developer expects the figure to eventually reach 7 billion yuan ($870 million).

Thanks to its unique nature, Dream World 2008 attracted great attention even before construction. Unlike other real-estate projects that spend a lot on marketing and promotion, it has kept a low profile when it launched its first phase of sales on December 28 last year there were no advertisements.

But the news spread quickly among the rich.

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