Luxury housing prices go through the roof

SHANGHAI: Gray-slate-clad villas surrounded by an imposing stone wall and an ostentatious main gate flanked by thick Roman columns are making history by setting record sale prices despite repeated government warnings of overheating in the property market.

In the latest sale at Forbes Park estate in the Gubei area, a villa of about 700 sq m was sold to an anonymous buyer at about 190,000 yuan per sq m.

It is an all-time high for residential properties in Shanghai, nearly double the earlier record of 100,000 yuan per sq m for Tomson Riviera apartments in Lujiazui financial center of Pudong district.