‘Haunted House’ Database Fosters Alternative Investments
As China’s property prices have skyrocketed in recent years, the haunted-home database launched by a Chinese property agency could help create a market for alternative investors, reveals Prof. Yinggang Zhou in an interview with The Wall Street Journal.
To help potential residents suss out whether their apartment might be prone to supernatural visitors with axes to grind, one Chinese property agency has created a database cataloging unnatural deaths—murders, suicides, etc.— that have occurred in Beijing homes.
As China’s housing property prices have zoomed upwards in recent years, Yinggang Zhou, Assistant Professor of School of Hotel and Tourism Management and Director of Centre for Hospitality and Real Estate Research at The Chinese University of Hong Kong Business School, said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal that while the database might be intended to assist potential residents, its information could also be helpful for investors. In Hong Kong, which in years past has experienced a meteoric property rise, some investors who might be priced out of other segments of the market have deliberately targeted haunted apartments, he said.
“This could help create a market for alternative investments,” Prof. Zhou added. “Some haunted homes are in pretty good neighbourhoods.”… Read More (PDF)
Source: Dow Jones Newswire / The Wall Street Journal
Date Published: 24 July, 2014