•        伦敦，纽约，房地产，建筑新闻
•        由Barbara Porada发布
•        Architecture NewsCitiesLondonNew York CityNYCReal Estate
•        by Barbara Porada
伦敦发生了十分有趣的现象：伦敦最昂贵的住宅市场正在越来越多地被海外投资，主要是远东投资带动起来。最有趣的是——也许也是最令人担心的是——伦敦市中心最昂贵的街区的投资方至少37％的人不打算将其用作首要居所。高档居民区和住宅地产很大程度上较荒凉，并对本市的经济几乎没有什么贡献。。曼哈顿部分地区正在经历类似的情况，这迫使我们要提出这样的问题“我们的城市全球化正在加强，可我们的城市究竟发生了什么？这一趋势将如何影响世界各地的城市经济？”
本段后更精彩•••
像伦敦最昂贵的贝尔格莱维亚区这样的住宅区正在转化成人数越来越少的乡村。这些住宅区的价格在七百五十万美元到七千五百万美元之间不等，这也就不难理解，总部位于伦敦的史密斯研究所（Smith Institute）最近的一份报告结果，“伦敦市中心的许多区域对于当地居民来说都超出了其可承受的消费能力。”
那么，谁可以买得起这些地区的房产呢？当然是超级富豪们了。越来越多的买家来自俄罗斯、哈萨克斯坦、东南亚、印度和伦敦——以及像纽约这样的地方——仅仅是“全球巡游”的一站，这些地方可能还包括莫斯科和摩纳哥。对于这些投资方来说，除了拥有一处或多处房产的成就感外，境外房地产投资只是他们存放钱的安全方式。但是，由于来自世界各地的这些居民很少在一个地方太久，也无需在其离开时将这些房子租出去，因此，在其房产周围的地区不仅很独特，实际上也就是鬼镇。
An interesting phenomenon is taking place in London: the priciest tiers of its housing market are increasingly being driven by overseas investment, primarily from the Far East. The most interesting – and perhaps most concerning – aspect of these investments is that at least 37% those who buy property in the most expensive neighborhoods of central London do not intend to use that property as a primary residence. This results in upscale neighborhoods and residential properties that are largely abandoned and contribute almost nothing to the local economy of the city. Parts of Manhattan are experiencing similar behavior, leading us to ask the question “what is happening to our cities as they become more and more globalized and how will this trend affect city economies around the world?”
Read more after the break…
Neighborhoods such as Belgravia, one of the most expensive in London, are transforming into villages with fewer and fewer people in them. With prices that range from $7.5 to $75 million, it’s no surprise that a recent report by the London-based Smith Institute says “many areas of central London have become prohibitively expensive for local residents.”
So who can afford to buy property in these areas? The super-wealthy, of course. More and more buyers hail from places like Russia, Kazakhstan, Southeast Asia and India, and London – and similarly parts of New York - are merely stops in a “peripatetic international existence” that may also include Moscow and Monaco. For them, investing in foreign real estate is seen as a safe place to put their money, in addition to the feeling of accomplishment resulting from owning one or more trophy homes. But because these residents of the world are rarely in one place for too long and see no need to rent them out when they’re gone, the areas surrounding their properties are not only exclusive but practically ghost-towns.

在纽约市的广场酒店，只有约10％的居民是全职工作人员。
这对于那些把此地作为家的人来说有切实的负面影响。以为来自伦敦特区的女士描述了能遇见讲英语的人是多么的困难，她的邻居中有多少她只见过一面，以及在这样的住宅区生活是多么的孤独和压抑。在纽约，像曼哈顿广场酒店这样的高端房产只有10％左右总有人居住，因此，这些地方总会定期变得黑暗、寂寞和空虚。虽然和平与隐私往往是这些住宅良好的卖点，显然这些并非对所有人都是不可取的。
伦敦比曼哈顿更是如此，这便导致形成了一个“更加国际化，更加昂贵，更加空虚”的城市——而这种情况只是越来越糟。据报道，对于伦敦黄金地段的单户住宅的英国买家平均花费225万美元，而国外买家则平均花费375万美元，来自俄罗斯或中东的买家的平均花费则可高达750万美元。在切斯特广场（Chester Square）的房子于1987年长期租赁卖得240万美元，而去年作为买断式回购购价高达4800万美元。但是，这笔钱的大部分只流入了房地产，本地经济却十分低糜，一些商店仅有几个客户，不得不时而停业一个月。
正如史密斯学院在其其伦敦住房市场的综合评价中写道：“伦敦急需使其成为“以市民能负担得起的成本，真正体面地服务市民”的城市。伦敦市场本应服务于伦敦人。许多人不再相信这一点，认为该系统已不能正常运行，因此，急需伦敦市长及其顾问进行分析、推出政策并付诸行动。如果这种围绕个人房产以及整个社区的情况在曼哈顿区持续增长，那么纽约将不得不面对这一事实去解决这一日益严重的城市困境。
This is having a tangibly negative effect on those who do call these areas home. One woman living in an exclusive part of London described how difficult it was to meet people who spoke English, how many of her neighbors she had only seen once and how lonely and oppressively quiet life could be in such a neighborhood. In New York, high-end properties such as the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan are only about 10% permanently occupied, leading to a residential building that stands dark, lonesome and empty on a regular basis. Although peace and privacy are often good selling points for these residences, clearly they aren’t desirable to everyone.
For London more so than Manhattan, this has resulted in a significantly “more international, more expensive and more empty” city – and it’s only getting worse. For single-family housing in the prime areas of London, British buyers reportedly spend an average of $2.25 million while foreign buyers spend an average of $3.75 million, which increases to $7.5 million if they’re from Russia or the Middle East. A house in Chester Square that sold for $2.4 million as a long-term lease in 1987 was sold last year as an outright purchase for a whopping $48 million. But most of this money only goes into real estate, leaving the local economy struggling, with some shops that have so few customers they have to close for a month at a time.
As the Smith Institute writes in its comprehensive evaluation of the London housing market, there is an urgent need to make London a city that can “actually house its citizens decently at a cost that they can afford.” The London market is meant to serve Londoners and because many believe it no longer does that, the system has been deemed dysfunctional and is in dire need of analysis, strategy and action by the city’s mayor and his advisors. If this behavior grows in Manhattan to encompass not only individual properties but entire neighborhoods, New York will also have to face the facts and find a solution to this growing urban dilemma.

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