at 3 %. Two Chinese men who worked as contractors in the construction industry were finalizing a deal on the purchase of two offices in the Zheng Dong Business Center's still unfinished office park. Both men said they owned multiple properties in the area, some of which were vacant. He owns 20 apartments here ! said one of the businessman's employees, laughing. Come back after 10 years and have a look and it will be completely different, he said, when asked about Zhengzhou's ghost town tag. The businessman, who asked not to be named, said he earned far better returns in real estate than from banks. Miller said the buy-up of property in China is further encouraged by the fact that unlike many Western countries, there is no annual property tax. You pay transaction taxes when you buy a property, but once you 've bought it you do n't pay anything, which is remarkable, he said. Build them and they will come ? Compared to China, the history of urbanization in the West is different. Things happened at a much slower pace, said Behzad Yaghmaian, a political economist and author of The Accidental Capitalist -- A People's Story of the New China. China is a huge country with the capacity to supply the world and now its own market. Things are bound to happen faster and with more mistakes. The jury is still out on whether or not huge urban development projects like the new districts of