Shanghai United Real Estate¹, a little-known Chinese property developer, is planning to invest more than A$1bn in Australia, shrugging off economists³’ growing concerns about the emergence⁴ of a possible “housing bubble” in the main cities.

名气不大的房地产开发商上海连合房地产(Shanghai United Real Estate)计划在澳大利亚投资逾10亿澳元，尽管经济学家们日益担心澳主要城市可能出现“住房泡沫”。

The investments follow the group’s A$130m purchase last month of an InterContinental hotel in Double Bay, Sydney — a property that is famous as the location of the death of INXS singer, Michael Hutchence, in 1997.

此前，上海连合房地产于上月斥资1.3亿澳元收购了悉尼双湾(Double Bay)的一家洲际酒店(InterContinental)。1997年，INXS乐队歌手迈克尔?赫琴斯(Michael Hutchence)死于这家酒店，这家酒店也因此出了名。

Shanghai United is the latest in a flood of Chinese developers to enter the Australian market as they seek to diversify⁵ overseas, amid diminishing returns in their home market.

上海连合房地产是最新一批涌入澳大利亚市场的中国开发商之一，随着国内市场回报不断下降，这些开发商寻求到海外展开多元化投资。

“In Beijing and Shanghai the land acquisition is very expensive so developers are thinking the money they pay for the land is almost the money you will get for the houses you sell later,” Yangdong Xu, Shanghai United chief executive, told the FT in Sydney. “At the moment it is a bit risky⁶ to make decisions.”

上海连合房地产总裁许仰东在悉尼向英国《金融时报》表示：“在北京和上海拿地非常贵，因此开发商们现在觉得，他们买地的钱几乎会与他们之后卖房子得到的钱相当。此时此刻，做决定有点冒险。”

He said Shanghai United had already invested A$600m in several residential⁷ and commercial developments across Australia and had plans to invest at least A$1bn in the country over the next decade.

他说，上海连合房地产已在澳大利亚几个住宅和商业开发项目中投资6亿澳元，而且计划未来十年里投资至少10亿澳元。

“That is a prediction, a very conservative prediction,” he said in an interview.

他在访谈中表示：“这是个预测，非常保守的预测。”

Shanghai United was formed by 10 small Chinese property developers in 2015 with Rmb100m ($15m) of registered capital. The group is developing a tourist resort in South Korea and is exploring opportunities in the US and Europe.

上海连合房地产由10家小型中国房地产开发商在2015年组建而成，注册资本1亿元人民币（合1500万美元）。该公司正在韩国开发旅游度假区，并在美国和欧洲物色机会。

Chinese property companies have been under pressure as the domestic economy has slowed in recent years, with small players pushed out of the market.

随着近年来国内经济放缓，中国房地产企业承受着压力，小型开发商被挤出了市场。

Two years ago, Mr Xu had said in a television interview that small- to medium-sized property companies were experiencing great pressures. “Many of them will be eliminated over the next five to 10 years, so they need to change their way of thinking,” he said then. “Uniting to head overseas is one such way”.

两年前，许仰东在接受电视采访时表示，中小型房地产公司正面临巨大压力。他当时表示：“未来五到十年，境内许多中小型房企面临被淘汰、被整合的状态，必须转变思路，而联合和出海是一条新路。”

In his latest interview on Friday, Mr Xu said Australia was a key destination for Shanghai United’s investment because of its stable environment, strong immigration levels and lower political risk when compared to other western markets.

在上周五接受的最近一次采访中，许仰东表示，与其他西方市场相比，澳大利亚是上海连合房地产的关键投资目的地之一，因为这里环境稳定、移民流入量大、政治风险较低。

“Some investors⁸ are motivated to come here because it is very unstable⁹ in America right now [with Trump],” said Mr Xu, a former property journalist in China.

“一些投资者之所以愿意来这里，是因为（特朗普(Trump)治下的）美国现在非常不稳定，”曾在中国担任地产记者的许仰东表示。

Australia has become one of the most popular destinations in recent years for Chinese property developers, including Greenland, Wanda, Starryland and Country Garden. Canberra approved Chinese residential and commercial property investments worth a record A$31.9bn in 2015-16, an increase of almost a third on the previous year. This accounted for a quarter of all foreign property investment in Australia in that year.

近年来，澳大利亚已成为最受绿地(Greenland)、万达(Wanda)、星光乐园(Starryland)、碧桂园(Country Garden)等中国房地产开发商欢迎的投资目的地之一。2015-16年度，澳政府批准的中国住宅和商业地产投资达到创纪录的319亿澳元，比上一年度增加近三分之一。这一数字占该年度澳大利亚外来房地产投资总额的四分之一。

“Asian property developers have sprung up out of the woodwork in the last five years. They saw an undervalued market and very favourable¹⁰ buying conditions because of low interest rates, high incomes and favourable migration,” said Andrew Antonas, founder¹¹ of Matrix Property Group, a real estate agency that markets development sites.

做开发楼盘营销的房地产代理公司Matrix Property Group的创始人安德鲁?安东纳斯(Andrew Antonas)说：“最近五年，亚洲房地产开发商如雨后春笋般冒出来。他们看到了一个价值被低估的市场和非常有利的购买条件，因为这里利率低、收入高、移民便利。”

But some local developers have warned the influx¹² of Asian developers over the past five years has bid up the price of land in Sydney and Melbourne to unsustainable levels. This week Willem Buiter, Citigroup’s chief economist², warned that Australia was in the grip of a “spectacular housing bubble”, which needed to be tackled.

但一些本地开发商警告，亚洲开发商过去五年的涌入已将悉尼、墨尔本的地价抬高到不可持续的水平。上周，花旗集团(Citigroup)首席经济学家威廉姆?比特(Willem Buiter)警告，澳大利亚正处于一个“巨大的住房泡沫”之中，必须加以应对。

Mr Xu said he was not concerned about the Sydney housing market.

许仰东称，他并不担心悉尼的住房市场。

“It is not obvious that there is a bubble in central Sydney because there is actually a lot of demand from buyers. Sydney may be the most expensive city in Australia but prices compare favourably¹³ with other metropolitan¹⁴ cities, such as London or Shanghai,” he said.

“悉尼市中心的泡沫并不明显，因为买家的需求其实很大。悉尼或许是澳大利亚最贵的城市，但与伦敦、上海等其他大都市相比，这里的房价还是有优势的，”他说。