I lived in Beijing for 9 years and literally could look through unfinished peepholes of apartments (which would be called condos in the states) and see that they weren't even renovated yet. The building would be sold out years ago, but only 25% of the apartments were being lived in. And you really need to look at rents: if a 8 million RMB apartment that is on the market is also renting for 5000 RMB/month...ya, something is wrong.

It never made sense for me to buy property in China (which I was eligible to do after being there for 6 years), since rent prices were so cheap in comparison.