China's Property Fever

Looking for an apartment in Shanghai today is a dispiriting reminder of what you should have bought back when everything was cheap. A three-bedroom apartment in The Summita stylish, but hardly palatial, development in the popular French Concessionis now on the market for $695,000, about twice what it would have cost two years ago. Another developer has raised its prices in the downtown area by more than 40% since November. Still, many investors feel compelled to buy. "They don't want to miss the boat," says Albert Lau, managing director of Savills Property Services in Shanghai, who describes the past two months...