Hong Kong

A STREAM of weak manufacturing data, the fall in the yuan and a stock market rout have painted a gloomy picture of the world's second-largest economy over the past few months. But for the property market in China's boomtown of Shenzhen, things couldn't be better.

Real estate prices in China's answer to Silicon Valley rose by almost a third in August from the same month a year ago, a further climb from the nearly 24 per cent year-on-year increase in July, official data showed, making it the country's hottest property market by far.