It’s the chineses. Buying real estate is kind of their thing, and since their home grown real estate ventures aren’t maturing well (check out evergrande), they’re out in other ponds buying up what they can. Down here in sunny California, we’ve got entire neighborhoods bought out by Chinese investors before ground is even broken. Then, when it’s time to actually sell, they crank up the price of everything by 60-100%. That’s how you get a shitty stucco condominium going for $2m+ in South city. It’s all a scam.