A few months ago we noted that a considerable amount of land was being purchased in Shanghai, partly for the erection of mills and partly in a speculative spirit. To-day 2 certain amount of this land is again coming into the market, and at prices very nearly the same as were paid half a year ago.
The boom in land, which had been largely supported by Japanese purchases, more or less came to an end when the financial slump took place in Japan. Japanese in Shanghai were in many instances hard hit by the depression, as affecting their head offices or con-noxious in Japan, and accordingly they were unable to develop the land purchased here. In a number of cases they have actually closed their businesses or reduced their staffs locally, and in consequence have placed on the market a certain amount of the land they had previously purchased. So far as can be learned, however, it is not being sold at a loss, although' as stated, some holders have sold lots at the same price as they paid for them several months back.
At the same time as one section of the Japanese has been disposing of property, another has been purchasing. Within the past fey weeks one or two large houses in the western district have changed hands, the buyers. it is understood, being Japanese.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.