经济学人:房价飙涨 泡沫为谁而破(上)

 　　Chinese property

　　中国房地产

　　For whom the bubble blows

　　泡沫为谁而破

　　House prices are soaring in big cities, but oversupply¹ plagues much of the country

　　大城市房价飙涨，但产能过剩才是全国性的问题

　　SHANGHAI, China’s financial centre, does not make it easy on outsiders wishing to buy homes. Non-residents who are single are banned from buying property. The married are welcome but only so long as they have paid local taxes for two years and make nearly a third of the purchase in cash. Shenyang, China’s biggest northern city, is far more welcoming. Anyone can buy a home there. All to little effect: housing prices in Shanghai, five times more expensive than those in Shenyang, have risen by 20% over the past year; those in the northern city have edged down.

　　上海是中国的金融中心，对于外来打工者来说，想在这里安家置业绝对不是一件容易的事。单身的非长驻居民不允许在这里买房。已婚人士购房是欢迎的，但前提是已经向地方政府上缴了两年税款并现金支付至少三分之一的购房款。中国北方最大的城市沈阳远比上海“热情好客”。任何人都可以在沈阳买房。但仍然无济于事，上海的房价比沈阳贵5倍，并且在去年一年里增长了20%，与此同时，北方城市房价却小幅下降。

　　This bifurcation is a worry for the government, which wants to spur growth without inflating² bubbles. A divergence³ in housing prices between wealthy cities and the hinterland is a familiar problem in other countries—just look at London and Lincolnshire, say, or New York and Nebraska. But the divisions are starker⁴ in China. In its most prosperous cities, already giddy prices continue to shoot up, while unsold flats pile up in markets where valuations were low to begin with. Moreover, construction has long been one of the economy’s main engines, accounting⁵ for as much as a quarter of GDP growth until recently. This makes it especially important that the government get the balance right. Doing so is proving hard.

　　政府希望既能刺激经济又不引发通胀，因此对两极分化的现象感到担忧。一线城市和欠发达地区的房价分化现象在其他国家也不少见：例如伦敦和林肯郡、纽约和内布拉斯加州。然而这种分化在中国表现得更明显。一边是在中国最繁华的城市里持续飙涨的房价，另一边则是本来市值就低的房子待售成堆。而且建筑行业一直是国家经济增长的主要引擎之一，直到最近仍占GDP增长的四分之一。因此，对于政府来说，保持平衡至关重要却也困难重重。

　　Over the past half-year, the government has unveiled a series of measures to support the housing market that specifically exclude China’s five hottest markets (Beijing, Guangzhou, Sanya, Shanghai and Shenzhen). People buying homes need only make a 20% down-payment to obtain a mortgage, except in the five conurbations, where they must put down 30%. By the same token, in most of the country transaction taxes have been cut by as much as two-thirds for people buying second homes; in the five outliers they have been left unchanged. In Shenzhen, a southern tech hub that is the frothiest market, with prices up by 53% in the past year alone, local officials have vowed⁶ to crack down on speculators and expand the supply of affordable⁷ housing.

　　在过去半年里，政府出台了一系列政策来稳住大部分城市的房地产市场（北京、广州、三亚、上海和深圳这五个房地产最火的城市除外）。购房者只需支付20%的首付款即可获得房屋贷款（这五个城市则需要付30%）；二套房购买者所要上缴的交易契税也减免了2/3（这五个城市保持不变）。深圳作为南方的科技中心，房价在去年一年上涨53%，成为泡沫最严重的城市，当地政府发誓要严控房产投机并加大可负担住房的供应。

1 oversupply   

n.供应过量；v.过度供给

参考例句：

• The market softened because of oversupply.市场因供过于求而疲软。
• Overexpansion of tea fields has led to oversupply.茶园过度扩张，使得市场上逐渐供过于求。

2 inflating   

v.使充气（于轮胎、气球等）( inflate的现在分词 )；（使）膨胀；（使）通货膨胀；物价上涨

参考例句：

• I felt myself inflating slowly with rage, like a tyre. 我感到自己体内的怒气正慢慢膨胀，像一只轮胎那样。 来自互联网
• Many are already overheating, with prices rising and asset bubbles inflating. 随着物价日益上涨、资产泡沫膨胀，很多新兴国家经济已经过热。 来自互联网

3 divergence   

n.分歧，岔开

参考例句：

• There is no sure cure for this transatlantic divergence.没有什么灵丹妙药可以消除大西洋两岸的分歧。
• In short,it was an age full of conflicts and divergence of values.总之，这一时期是矛盾与价值观分歧的时期。

4 starker   

（指区别）明显的( stark的比较级 )； 完全的； 了无修饰的； 僵硬的

参考例句：

• As night falls, the contrast between these worlds grows starker. 随着夜幕的降临，两个世界的对比更为鲜明。
• What's more, compared with 1992, voters face a starker economic choice. 另外，跟1992年相比，选民面临着一种更为刻板的经济选择。

5 accounting   

n.会计，会计学，借贷对照表

参考例句：

• A job fell vacant in the accounting department.财会部出现了一个空缺。
• There's an accounting error in this entry.这笔账目里有差错。

6 vowed   

起誓，发誓（vow的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• He vowed quite solemnly that he would carry out his promise. 他非常庄严地发誓要实现他的诺言。
• I vowed to do more of the cooking myself. 我发誓自己要多动手做饭。

7 affordable   

adj.支付得起的，不太昂贵的

参考例句：

• The rent for the four-roomed house is affordable.四居室房屋的房租付得起。
• There are few affordable apartments in big cities.在大城市中没有几所公寓是便宜的。