This makes domestic "ruin porn" seem mild by comparison.
Business reports this week by three Chinese media outlets tout Detroit as a promising place to invest in distressed real estate.
An article Thursday in the South China Morning Post, an English paper in Hong Kong, is headlined "Chinese investors eye bankrupt house market in Detroit." Here's an excerpt:
Hong Kong article from March 21.Apparently Detroit's plummeting home prices have become attractive to Chinese investors who have seen a hike in housing prices at home, according to a report by CCTV.
The report recounted Detroit’s fall from U.S. automotive industry hub to “ghost town” due to a decline in industrial output and poor management.
The CCTV report featured a real estate developer in Detroit who acquired 363 properties in two years. Most cost only a few thousand U.S. dollars, while smaller properties can cost as little as US$500.
That article is accompanied by a photo of a crumbling, collapsing three-story brick home on Woodward Avenue, while the People's Daily illustrates its coverage a day earlier with the image above.
The Hong Kong paper also reports:
Two days after a Chinese real estate agency . . . advertised an investors' tour in Detroit, thousands of people have expressed interest, according to a report in the People's Daily.
The article concludes with this buyer-beware reality check:
Detroit has a high crime rate, high population loss and widespread poverty.The city was subject to an emergency state takeover of its finances in March this year.
