No industry can bring more love and hate to the urban Chinese than real estate, or rather the building and supply of residential housing.

China's 70 largest cities experienced a hike in housing prices by an average of 2 percent year on year in August, doubling the price acceleration from July, according to a Sept 9 announce-ment by the National Development and Reform Commission.

Only less than half a year ago, the industry was talking about the danger of a weakened demand and plummeting housing prices. That was when the entire world was under the seizure of the worst financial crisis in 80 years and markets were tumbling in many countries.