Ivanta couldn't understand the Chinese spoken by the Chinese man named Yan Hegui next to him.
But after Barron's question, she looked around the courtyard, frowned slightly, and said:
"From the outside, it looks very Chinese in style, but the decoration inside is a bit too old. It needs some renovation before it's suitable for living..."
"You're right, baby. Believe me, this place will surprise you after some renovation."
At first Barron didn't think much about it, but after Yan Hegui's words, Barron finally remembered that the location of this courtyard house was the very famous courtyard house in his previous life that was bought by Murdoch and given to Deng Wendi after the divorce.
However, the photos he saw in his previous life all showed this courtyard house after it had been renovated and decorated, and he did not connect the two at first.
If he remembered correctly, it seemed that Murdoch in the original time and space also bought this courtyard house at about this time.
Thinking of this, Barron said to Yan Hegui,
"Mr. Yan, how much does it cost to buy this building?"
"Your Highness, you can just call me Agui. Your Chinese is really good..."
After Yan Hegui admired the young duke's fluent Chinese, he said respectfully:
"As for the price of this house, to be honest, I am just introducing it as an introduction. I am not specialized in this. I can arrange for you to discuss it with the owner. However, the prices of courtyard houses vary greatly now, and it also has a lot to do with the location and appearance. The location of this courtyard house is currently the best, and it should be between 35,000 and 40,000 per square meter..."
Nowadays, the transaction price of courtyard houses is still calculated based on the building area, unlike later when it was calculated based on the land area.
You should know that Siheyuan are all bungalows. If the price is calculated based on the building area, it is equivalent to not counting the yard in the price. Usually, the building area of a Siheyuan only accounts for about 40% of the land area...
His offer was similar to the one Murdoch paid for this place in his previous life, so Barron said,
"Please contact the owner. I plan to buy this place."
"Okay, then our other places..."
He was indeed a wealthy man. Although Yan Hegui had seen wealthy men before, he could not help but be amazed that he could decide to buy a house worth hundreds of millions of dollars with just a few words - they had not even been here for fifteen minutes.
But what surprised Yan Hegui even more was Barron's next words:
"Go take a look too. If it's suitable, I'm prepared to buy a few more."
In Baron's opinion, the courtyard house bought by Murdoch in the original time and space increased in value tenfold after ten years. Twenty years later, courtyard houses in this location are even more out of stock.
The capital's courtyard houses are not like those modern residential areas. The total number will not increase and may even decrease. They can be said to be a scarce resource.
In his previous life, Barron worked in the financial industry and had come into contact with some wealthy people. He also learned about the Yanjing Siheyuan...
At that time, he saw a set of data that said there were 26,000 courtyards in Yanjing during the Qianlong period, and the number increased slightly during the Republic of China period, to about 30,000.
But by the 1980s, there were only about 6,000 left, of which about 3,000 were relatively intact...
In 2012, the "Yanjing Siheyuan Records" was published, and only 923 siheyuans were included in it.
Among these more than 900 courtyard houses, the number that can be traded is very small, estimated to be within 300.
Of course, this does not include those mixed courtyards, such as those with three or five rooms or without a layout, which cannot be considered as siheyuan.
That is to say, the wealthy have not yet started to buy on a large scale - because starting this year, Yanjing began to cancel the household registration restrictions on purchasing siheyuan houses.
On the contrary, it was because two years ago, Yanjing dealt with the historical legacy of "standard rent", that is, the government funded the construction of resettlement housing to vacate the tenants who had previously lived in private houses for various reasons...
To put it simply, in the early days, for various reasons, some people who did not have the property rights of the courtyard houses were arranged to live in these courtyard houses.
After a period of time, even if the property owners of the courtyard houses wanted to sell them, a lot of disputes arose because the tenants were unwilling to move out, and the matter ended up in a mess.
After Yanjing dealt with the matter, the courtyard houses were finally returned to the property owners, giving them full rights to dispose of the houses.
So during that period of time, the owners of the courtyard houses who had been unable to sell their houses due to these reasons were finally able to sell their properties.
The large number of privately owned courtyard houses that were available for trading appeared in the market, which also led to a drop of about 20% in the transaction prices of the entire Yanjing courtyard houses over a period of time last year.
Therefore, if you buy a courtyard house now, although the price is much higher than that of a building - the average price of the entire Yanjing real estate market is about 4,000 yuan, while the average price of a courtyard house is between 20,000 and 40,000 yuan, but for Barron, as his short-term residence, the courtyard house can naturally better reflect his status.
After all, as a person with the soul of a Chinese person in previous life, the love for the siheyuan is engraved in his bones.
So Barron also planned to take a look at other courtyard houses, like the current one, which is just a courtyard house with one entrance. The area is not large, with a construction area of only about 250 square meters, and the total area including the yard is less than 700 square meters.
If there is a bigger one out there, especially a courtyard house with three or four courtyards, Barron will buy it even if it is a little further away than here.
"Do you really want to buy this place, dear?"
Barron and Yan Hegui were talking in Chinese. Although Ivanta could not understand their conversation, she had Wang Wanting by her side to act as an interpreter, so she knew that Barron actually wanted to buy this place.
"Yes, baby. You have to know that this house is only separated from the Forbidden City by a river. If we later convert part of the house here into a high-rise, then imagine that you can see the scenery inside the Forbidden City from the French window in the bedroom. Isn't it cool? And don't look at this place now It's a bit shabby, but believe me, after the renovation, it will definitely be more charming than those villas in the Upper East Side."
After saying this to Ivanta, Barron turned to Yan Hegui and asked,
"By the way, Mr. Yan, I know you are an expert in Siheyuan, so I wonder if you can introduce some design and construction teams that have more experience in the repair and renovation of ancient buildings like Siheyuan? You can rest assured that price is not a problem, I just want the final effect!"
"You've hit the nail on the head, Your Highness. If you want to renovate this kind of courtyard house and preserve its original style, it does require some effort... I know a decoration company that has hired some experts in ancient architecture and has done similar projects before. I can ask for you."
To be honest, although the decoration of the courtyard house of Deng Wendi that he had seen in his previous life looked very beautiful, it still lacked some antique charm, and Barron had higher requirements for it.
If possible, he would also like to buy some mahogany furniture from the Ming and Qing dynasties to place in his own courtyard.