Peh has a thick layer of dust covering his kitchen counters, bathroom sinks and living room floors in Shanghai.
Every year for the past eight years, Peh has travelled thousands of miles from his home in Singapore to brush off the dust gathering in the three empty flats in Shanghai's financial district.
The Singaporean businessman bought the flats in the mid-1990s and says they have been a string of headaches ever since: he hasn't seen a return on his investment, not even on paper.
He was among the first wave of Chinese from Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan to buy Shanghai's residential property, hoping breakneck economic growth would fuel a run in housing prices.
"The developers came round to Singapore and it seemed like a good thing ... Everyone thought it would make a lot of profit," said Peh, who didn't want his full name used.
Unfortunately, Peh bought at the top of the market, just before oversupply and the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis caused prices to fall.
Despite a 50 percent rebound in luxury housing prices since 1997, Peh says flats in his area are being offered for about US$700 per square meter; he went in at US$1,000 per square meter.
"If China maintains seven to eight percent growth, I estimate it will be another five years before I could get back my investment plus some interest," he said.
Economists say Peh might just be right. Housing prices in China's richest city and economic engine are forecast to rise an average of 10 percent this year as incomes continue to climb.
China's membership of the WTO -- it gained entry last December -- will help by fuelling already heady growth and drawing in capital from overseas.
Foreign investment in property jumped 316 percent in the first half on the year to US$661 million, the official Xinhua news agency said.
"I like the mass market. Income levels are growing quite rapidly and more migrants are coming in," said Dong Tao, greater China economist at Credit Suisse First Boston.
But things may be less rosy at the top end of the market, where Peh and foreign punters sit.
"I am a little worried about the top-tier market where there seems to be some speculation," Dong said. "For foreigners who put their life savings into Shanghai, you have to ask yourself, who are you going to sell to?"
China's secondary market for housing is still undeveloped, the supply of new housing is steady and there are few people who can afford the kinds of houses in that price bracket.
Adding to the difficulties has been a rollercoaster of prices in the decade since the overseas Chinese first started to buy.
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