When the world's priciest apartment turns out to be a phantom sale you know there are cracks in the top-end real estate sector. And cracks there are. Even before a $57m sale fell through in Hong Kong, developers of luxury homes in Moscow were slashing prices and Shanghai was emitting a loud popping sound. In New York, transactions are running at around half peak levels. Even Monaco, haven of the mega-rich, is no longer a buyers' paradise: purchases are 40 per cent below last year's levels as tax refugees rent rather than buy.
当世界最高价公寓的买卖变成泡影时,你就知道,高端房地产市场出现了裂痕。裂痕确实存在。在香港那套5700万美元的房子买卖告吹之前,莫斯科的豪华住宅开发商就已经在大幅降价了,而在上海,楼市泡沫也发出了响亮的破裂声。纽约房市交易量仅为顶峰水平的一半左右。就连超级富翁的避税港摩纳哥也不再是买家的天堂:销量比去年减少了40%,避税者宁愿租房而不愿买房。