澳大利亞的中國“金主”（下）：買房團(tuán)與投資2.0

The boom was on.

繁榮的大幕就此開啟了。

Little Port Hedland became one of the biggest ports in the world, handling a greater tonnage of freight each year than the ports of Los Angeles, Hong Kong or Antwerp, Belgium. Skilled welders and electricians earned as much as $350,000 a year, drawing workers from around the country. The town’s population doubled, to a peak of about 30,000, and would have increased a lot more except that a dispute over Aboriginal claims to land on the city’s outskirts blocked construction and resulted in a housing shortage.

小小的黑德蘭港變成了世界上最大的港口之一，每年處理貨物的噸位比洛杉磯、香港或比利時(shí)的安特衛(wèi)普還要大。熟練的焊工和電工一年的工資可達(dá)35萬美元，吸引了來自全國各地的工人。這里的人口已經(jīng)翻番，達(dá)到約30萬的頂峰。如果不是土著人宣稱享有郊區(qū)的土地引發(fā)的爭端阻礙了施工，導(dǎo)致房屋短缺，這里的人還會多很多。

Much of the high pay came from overtime, or what became known as “divorce rosters” or “suicide rosters.” Mining companies flew workers into remote camps to work 27 days with a single day off in the middle, then flew them home again. Welders in their “high-viz” — reflective, high-visibility yellow mining shirts — spent months drenched in sweat as they labored outside through long summers in coastal desert heat reaching 110 degrees.

高額的報(bào)酬有許多來自加班，或是由于上了一種被戲稱為“離婚排班表”或“自殺排班表”的班次。礦業(yè)公司將工人運(yùn)至偏遠(yuǎn)的營地，讓他們連著工作27天，中間只休息一天，之后再送回。焊工身著“高能見”服裝——能反射光線、能見度比較高的黃色采礦作業(yè)服——數(shù)月里一直在沿海沙漠高達(dá)110華氏度(約合43攝氏度)的高溫中汗流浹背進(jìn)行戶外作業(yè)，度過一個個漫長的夏天。

All that overtime pay pushed prices to stratospheric levels. Port Hedland’s bakery, butcher, newsstand, charter fishing operator and scuba-diving shop all closed, unable to cope with soaring rents and locals who would rather work for mining companies than the shops.

所有這些超時(shí)工資將物價(jià)推至極高的程度。黑德蘭港的面包店、肉攤、報(bào)攤、特許經(jīng)營的魚店和水肺潛水店都關(guān)門了，因?yàn)闊o力承擔(dān)不斷飆升的租金，也請不到本地人放棄礦業(yè)公司而為之工作。

Ray Sampson, the owner of a local diner, paid $1,600 a week to rent a small house for his out-of-town cooks and waitresses. With his diner packed daily, he then had to rent a second small house, for $1,800 a week, to house more workers, mostly hitchhikers who drifted through town for a few weeks and were the only people willing to accept jobs as cooks and waiters.

當(dāng)?shù)匾患倚〔宛^的老板雷·桑普森(Ray Sampson)以每周1600美元的租金租下一棟小屋，供他從市外聘來的廚師和女服務(wù)員住宿。因?yàn)椴宛^每天爆滿，他又以每周1800的租金租了第二棟小屋，好容納新增的員工。他們大多是途徑這里、短暫停留幾周的背包客，也是唯一愿意接受廚師和服務(wù)員這類工作的人。

Real estate prices and rents took off. Affluent families from elsewhere in Australia and from mainland China, Malaysia and Singapore heard about the profits from charging four-digit weekly rents and swooped in to invest.

房地產(chǎn)的賣價(jià)和租金大漲。澳大利亞別的地方、中國大陸、馬來西亞和新加坡的富裕家庭聽說了這里的四位數(shù)周租金，感到有利可圖，于是大批涌入，進(jìn)行投資。

Lorren Murphy, a convenience store owner from Perth, flew up to Port Hedland four years ago and paid almost $2 million for a two-story house. He quickly signed a two-year lease with a tenant willing to pay $4,100 a week — nearly $18,000 a month.

珀斯一家便利店的老板洛林·墨菲(Lorren Murphy)在四年前飛到黑德蘭港，花了近200萬美元買下一棟兩層樓房。他很快便簽了一份為期兩年的租約，租戶愿意每周支付4100美元，也就是說每月近1.8萬美元。

He was envious of others who had even more money to invest, because it seemed like a sure bet. “I’ve got a friend who dropped $6 million here,” Mr. Murphy recalled.

他羨慕那些有更多資金進(jìn)行投資的人，因?yàn)檫@看起來似乎是一樁穩(wěn)賺不賠的生意。“我有個朋友在這兒投了600萬美元，”墨菲回憶道。

The town finally replaced its prefabricated hospital and added a swimming center, an air-conditioned basketball arena, a new courthouse, a skateboard park and more. Outside Port Hedland, the state government in Perth spent on hospitals, new power lines and water systems and a $1 billion Australian football stadium.

城里最終拆掉了原有的醫(yī)院進(jìn)行重建，新增了一座游泳館、一個配備空調(diào)的籃球館、一座新政府大樓、一座溜冰場，還有其他設(shè)施。在黑德蘭港外，位于珀斯的州政府投資建設(shè)了多座醫(yī)院、新電力線和供水系統(tǒng)，還花10億美元修建一座澳式橄欖球場。

But 4,000 miles away, trouble was brewing. China’s debt-choked developers were starting fewer buildings. Steel use fell 3 percent in 2014 and an additional 5 percent in 2015, even as more steel mills were being built in anticipation of never-ending growth. Manufacturers were becoming more cautious about putting up more factories.

然而，在4000英里以外，麻煩正在醞釀。中國負(fù)債累累的開發(fā)商開始放慢蓋新樓的速度。鋼鐵消耗量在2014年減少了3%，2015年又減少了5%，盡管那里正在修建更多鋼鐵廠，以為會有永無止境的增長。制造商對開設(shè)更多工廠表現(xiàn)得更加謹(jǐn)慎。

The Collapse

倒塌

“This is a bigger bust than anyone ever saw.”

“誰也沒見過泡沫爆得這么壯觀。”

Nearly 200 miles south of Port Hedland, the Iron Valley iron ore mine squats in a red desert of drought-stunted eucalyptus trees and maroon cliffs.

在黑德蘭港以南約200英里處，名為鐵谷的鐵礦場就座落在紅色的沙漠里，這里有因?yàn)楦珊刀鴽]充分長開的桉樹，還有褐紅色的懸崖。

Kim Sheppard, the general manager until he moved to a different position last month, climbed the staircase of a three-story yellow apparatus coated with reddish-pink grime that clanged as it crushed and sorted iron ore into small pebbles. The highly automated operation requires only four workers and a supervisor for each work shift, as well as a few mechanics, blasting specialists and managers at an air-conditioned building nearby. At the peak of construction, a couple of hundred workers labored here.

之前擔(dān)任礦場總經(jīng)理的金·謝潑德(Kim Sheppard)沿著一座三層的黃色設(shè)備的階梯往上走。他在上個月轉(zhuǎn)到了別的崗位。這個設(shè)備落了一層粉色的礦塵，在壓碎鐵礦石和將之分揀成小塊時(shí)發(fā)出鏗鏘之聲。這里的作業(yè)高度自動化，每班只需四名工人和一名監(jiān)工，還有幾名技工、爆破專家和經(jīng)理在旁邊一座有空調(diào)的樓內(nèi)呆著。在生產(chǎn)的高峰期，曾經(jīng)有幾百名工人在這里勞作。

The desert around the site used to be dotted with large camps of workers, building more mines. Now the desert is empty.

礦場周圍的沙漠過去點(diǎn)綴著一些大型的工人營地，從而建成了更多礦場?，F(xiàn)如今，沙漠上卻一片空白。

“There are always booms and busts,” Mr. Sheppard said. “But this one is different.”

“總是有興有衰，”謝潑德說。“但這一次不同。”

Port Hedland felt the pain quickly. Iron ore prices plummeted. Worried that workers might get angry and damage multimillion-dollar equipment, mining companies laid off tens of thousands of construction workers.

黑德蘭港很快感受到了這種痛楚。鐵礦石價(jià)格大跌。因?yàn)閾?dān)心工人發(fā)怒，破壞價(jià)值數(shù)百萬美元的設(shè)備，礦業(yè)公司裁掉了數(shù)以萬計(jì)的雇員。

“One day they just called in the trucks for lunch, and they said, ‘Bring in your backpacks,’ which was unheard-of,” said Shannon Baker, a former power shovel operator at a mine near Iron Valley. “They got us together in the crew room and they said, ‘The planes are at the airport to take you out.’”

“那天他們說是喊卡車司機(jī)進(jìn)來吃午飯，結(jié)果卻說，‘拿上你們的背包，’這在以前是沒有過的，”曾在鐵谷附近一座礦場開挖土機(jī)的香農(nóng)·貝克(Shannon Baker)說。“他們把我們集中在員工室，然后說，‘機(jī)場有飛機(jī)會帶你們走。’”

Rents and housing prices have fallen by three-quarters, said Jim Henneberry, the owner of one of Port Hedland’s biggest real estate brokerage firms. A fifth of the town’s homes sit empty.

黑德蘭港一家大型房地產(chǎn)經(jīng)紀(jì)公司的所有者吉姆·亨內(nèi)伯里(Jim Henneberry)說，房租和房價(jià)已經(jīng)下降了四分之三。鎮(zhèn)上五分之一的房子處于空置狀態(tài)。

Bill Dziombak spent $1 million apiece to build luxury townhouses here, only to see rents and prices collapse. “I never expected this to go bang the way it did, in just 12 months,” he said. “It was like falling off the edge of a cliff.”

比爾·齊奧姆巴克(Bill Dziombak)以每棟100萬美元的造價(jià)在這里修建了聯(lián)排別墅，卻眼瞅著房租和房價(jià)崩了盤。“無論如何也想不到，僅僅12個月里，事情就這樣突然發(fā)生了，”他說。“就好像從懸崖邊掉了下去。”

Customers at Camilo Blanco’s car repair garage no longer need reservations. “I’ve had customers coming in and saying, ‘This is the last time I’ll see you, because I have to leave town,’” said Mr. Blanco, who is also Port Hedland’s acting mayor.

卡米洛·布蘭科(Camilo Blanco)經(jīng)營的汽車修理廠的顧客不再需要預(yù)約。“曾有顧客走進(jìn)來說，‘這是最后一次見面了，因?yàn)槲也坏貌浑x開這里，’”兼任黑德蘭港代理市長的布蘭科說。

Departing miners have sold so many used power boats, muscle cars and dune buggies that the local market is glutted. Mr. Blanco was recently offered an options-laden $14,000 Rhino dune buggy for half that price, and he still bargained: “I said, ‘I’ll pay you five grand for it,’ and it’s sitting in my yard now.”

礦工們臨走前賣掉了太多舊機(jī)動船、肌肉車和沙漠越野車，當(dāng)?shù)厥袌龀涑庵@些東西。不久前，有人要把一輛帶有諸多選配裝置、原價(jià)1.4萬美元的Rhino沙灘車以半價(jià)賣給布蘭科，而他還是要討價(jià)還價(jià)：“我說，‘我愿意出價(jià)五千’，而現(xiàn)在它就停在我家院子里。”

Local leaders who spent heavily during the boom times are now under pressure to cut real estate taxes, which in many cases are still based on eye-wateringly high property values. Simply operating Port Hedland’s new basketball arena costs $2 million a year, or 3 percent of the city’s annual budget.

當(dāng)?shù)仡I(lǐng)導(dǎo)人在繁榮時(shí)期有大把的錢可花，如今卻面臨著削減房地產(chǎn)稅的壓力——相關(guān)稅率的設(shè)定在很大程度上仍然以極高的房地產(chǎn)價(jià)值為依據(jù)。單是運(yùn)營黑德蘭港的新籃球館，每年就要花掉200萬美元，相當(dāng)于當(dāng)?shù)啬甓阮A(yù)算的3%。

“It’s like surfing,” said Colin Barnett, the premier of Western Australia state, in an interview in Perth. “When the wave comes, you’ve got to catch it and you’ve got to ride it hard and get everything out of it. When the wave’s not there, you’ve got to paddle hard, and we’re paddling hard at the moment.”

“這就像沖浪，”西澳大利亞州州長科林·巴尼特(Colin Barnett)在珀斯接受采訪時(shí)說。“浪來了，你得把握住機(jī)會，奮力乘浪而行，利用好它帶給你的一切。浪走了，你就得奮力劃水，我們當(dāng)下就是在奮力劃水。”

Chinese Investment 2.0

中國投資2.0

Even in the middle of the worst of the mining slump, Australia has found a potential source of strength, again from China: people like Ike Wang.

即便采礦業(yè)出現(xiàn)了最嚴(yán)重的滑坡，澳大利亞還是發(fā)現(xiàn)了經(jīng)濟(jì)增長的潛在源泉，這次依然來自中國那里，也就是艾克·王(Ike Wang)這類人。

Mr. Wang, 24, graduated last year from Murdoch University in Perth, where he was one of hundreds of students from mainland China. He is looking for a full-time job in marketing and, despite Western Australia’s slowdown, he has an advantage: His family back in Tianjin, China, paid $370,000 at the start of this year to buy him a two-bedroom apartment.

現(xiàn)年24歲的艾克·王去年畢業(yè)于珀斯的莫道克大學(xué)(Murdoch University)，該校有成百上千名像他這樣來自中國大陸的學(xué)生。他正尋找市場營銷方面的全職工作，盡管西澳大利亞州經(jīng)濟(jì)增長放緩，但他有一個優(yōu)勢：他在中國天津的家人于今年年初花37萬美元為他買下了一套帶有兩間臥室的公寓。

The 13th-floor apartment, with white walls and a white carpet, is nearly empty of furniture. But it has a good view over the city and what seems like solid workmanship. (Coincidentally, Mr. Meadowcroft did some of the plumbing for the complex.)

這套公寓位于13樓，墻壁刷成了白色，地上鋪著白地毯，屋內(nèi)幾乎沒有任何家具。但它擁有可以俯瞰這座城市良好視野，施工工藝看上去也很過硬。(巧合的是，這棟公寓樓的部分給排水管道是由梅多克羅夫特安裝的。)

The apartment gives Mr. Wang a free place to live while he decides his next move. “I like that it’s a new apartment,” he said. “Everything is new and clean.”

在艾克·王盤算下一步該怎么辦的時(shí)候，這套公寓讓他有了免費(fèi)的住處。“這是一套新公寓，我很喜歡，”他說。“哪兒都是嶄新而又干凈的。”

Real estate developers say that they see a lot of Chinese families eager to buy homes in Australia. “I think the investment return is the No. 2 concern — it’s about getting money somewhere that is stable and safe, it’s about getting the money out” of China, said Paul Blackburne, a developer of numerous Perth apartment complexes.

房地產(chǎn)開發(fā)商稱，他們發(fā)現(xiàn)很多中國家庭急于在澳大利亞買房。在珀斯開發(fā)了大量公寓樓的保羅·布萊克本(Paul Blackburne)說，“我認(rèn)為投資回報(bào)是次要關(guān)注點(diǎn)——他們的首要目標(biāo)是把錢放在某個穩(wěn)定安全的地方，是把錢轉(zhuǎn)出”中國。

As in the United States, low interest rates have also fanned demand for houses and apartments from local buyers. Australian government data shows that it approved $18.2 billion in Chinese real estate investments in the year that ended June 30, 2015, twice as much as the year before, and more than triple the total last year for the United States, which was the second-largest overseas investor. And developers say that a lot more Chinese money is quietly flowing into Australian real estate without government approvals.

與美國的情況類似，低利率也增進(jìn)了買家對房屋和公寓的需求。澳大利亞政府的數(shù)據(jù)顯示，在截至2015年6月30日的財(cái)年里，得到其許可的來自中國的房地產(chǎn)投資為182億美元，為前一財(cái)年的兩倍，比上一財(cái)年來自美國的投資總額多出兩倍還多——美國是澳大利亞的第二大海外投資者。一些開發(fā)商表示，更多來自中國的資金在沒有得到澳大利亞政府許可的情況下，悄悄流進(jìn)了房地產(chǎn)市場。

Port Hedland and the entire state of Western Australia face budget problems. The state has begun moving to sell a 50-year lease on the Utah Point berth, possibly to a Chinese buyer, despite objections from smaller companies like Mineral Resources, which owns the low-cost Iron Valley mine and cannot use the other docks because they are controlled by giant rivals like BHP. (Mr. Meadowcroft coincidentally helped build the Utah Point berth as well.)

黑德蘭港乃至整個西澳大利亞州都面臨著預(yù)算問題。該州已經(jīng)著手出售為期50年的猶他點(diǎn)泊位租約，買家有可能來自中國，盡管礦產(chǎn)資源(Mineral Resources)等規(guī)模較小的公司紛紛表示反對。該公司擁有成本低廉的鐵谷鐵礦場，卻不能使用其他碼頭，因?yàn)樗鼈兌际芸赜诒睾捅赝氐纫?guī)模龐大的競爭對手。(梅多克羅夫特恰巧也參與修建了猶他點(diǎn)泊位。)

But unemployment has barely risen in Port Hedland or in Western Australia over all. Some, like Mr. Meadowcroft, found jobs in Perth. Many moved east to Sydney and Melbourne to work in the construction sector there.

但總體而言，黑德蘭港或者西澳大利亞州的失業(yè)率基本沒有上升。一些人，比如梅多克羅夫特，在珀斯找到了工作。許多人搬到了東邊的悉尼和墨爾本，投身于那里的建筑行業(yè)。

One worry in Australia is whether the country is now on an economic trajectory similar to that of the United States a decade earlier. Australia’s central bank warned in April that if Chinese demand faltered, Australia’s real estate market could suffer and the country’s banking system, heavily exposed to home mortgages, could be harmed.

讓一些澳大利亞人感到擔(dān)心的是：這個國家眼下所處的經(jīng)濟(jì)軌道是否和10年前的美國類似?澳大利亞央行在4月份警告稱，如果來自中國的需求下降，澳大利亞的房地產(chǎn)市場可能遭受挫折，該國有著大量住房抵押貸款業(yè)務(wù)的銀行系統(tǒng)可能受到損害。

But for now, Chinese money is still flowing. Many miners who squandered their earnings during the iron ore boom are now trying to catch up in construction jobs. But many others socked away their money from the boom and have used those savings to buy homes or start small businesses.

但截至目前，中國人的資金仍在流入。在鐵礦石熱潮中拿賺到的錢大肆揮霍的很多礦工，如今正竭力適應(yīng)建筑業(yè)的工作。但也有很多礦工當(dāng)初存了錢，已經(jīng)用積蓄買了房或創(chuàng)辦了小企業(yè)。

“They were micro-entrepreneurs,” said Tom Barratt, a University of Western Australia doctoral student who is doing his thesis on labor markets in the Pilbara hills.

“他們是小微創(chuàng)業(yè)者，”西澳大學(xué)的博士生湯姆·巴勒特(Tom Barratt)說。他在寫一篇關(guān)于皮爾巴拉(Pilbara)山丘地區(qū)勞動力市場的論文。

Mr. Meadowcroft is among those savers. He bought a house and soon paid off most of the mortgage. He also married his longtime girlfriend after years of commuting to far-flung mines and ports, and is now raising two children as he learns to be a plumber.

梅多克羅夫特就是存了錢的人之一。他買了一棟房子，很快就付清了大部分抵押貸款。另外，在過了許多年往返于居住地和遙遠(yuǎn)的礦山、港口之間的日子以后，他和相戀已久的女友結(jié)了婚，目前一邊養(yǎng)育兩個孩子，一邊學(xué)著成為一名水管工。

Although his savings account is much smaller now, he has no regrets about the boom years. “That was 12 years of really hard work,” he said, “to achieve what a lot of people don’t achieve in their whole lives.”

盡管銀行儲蓄賬戶里的錢現(xiàn)在少了許多，但談起那個繁榮的時(shí)代，他說自己無怨無悔。“我結(jié)結(jié)實(shí)實(shí)地辛苦勞作了12年，”他說，“去實(shí)現(xiàn)許多人終其一生也無法達(dá)到的目標(biāo)。”