He renovated the guesthouse and made major structural updates on the main house but sold the property before he finished the renovation.

WSJ: James Patterson's Big Home Overhaul in Palm Beach

At the end of 2008, Mr. Marks, chairman of Los Angeles-based Oaktree Capital Management, and his wife Nancy completed a seven-year renovation of the property with Michael Smith, the designer who redid the White House Oval Office a few years ago, according to someone familiar with the designer.

WSJ: Private Properties

Yet equally, it is not hard to imagine that a clearer system of property rights would render hutong houses valuable propositions for private renovation.

ECONOMIST: China��s Communist modernisers are wrecking the capital