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Ex-Official: China Has Enough Empty Houses for 3 Billion Despite Property Market Crisis

  • Ex-official He Keng said China has enough empty houses to accommodate 3 billion people, critiquing the property market crisis.

  • Data shows unsold floor area was 648 million sqm in August 2022, equal to 7.2 million empty homes.

  • Many projects sold but not completed due to cash-flow problems in China's slumping property sector.

  • Sector has struggled since 2021 default of Evergrande group and other developers nearing default.

  • Foreign ministry spokesperson asserted Chinese economy is resilient despite predictions of collapse.

hindustantimes.com
Relevant topic timeline:
### Summary China's economic crisis, particularly in the real estate sector, has far-reaching implications beyond economic sectors, impacting households, consumer confidence, and international investor sentiment, posing a significant challenge for President Xi Jinping's leadership. ### Facts - 💰 Evergrande Group, one of China's highly indebted property giants, filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy protection in the U.S., underscoring the gravity of the situation. - 💣 Brahma Chellaney, a strategic affairs expert, believes that China's real estate crisis presents a significant challenge for President Xi Jinping's leadership and may lead to increased risk-taking and potential crackdowns on protests. - 🔗 Evergrande's struggles are mirrored by Country Garden, another major player, which warned of up to a $7.6 billion first-half loss and apologized for misjudging market conditions. - 🌍 The real estate slump in China is part of a larger economic crisis, with structural constraints like an aging population and mounting debt adding to the woes, potentially hindering China's ambition to become a global economic superpower. - 📉 Zongyuan Zoe Liu, a Fellow for China Studies, highlighted concerns of foreign investors regarding contagion effects from the real estate sector's financing practices and the state of China's shadow-banking system. The trust industry, valued at $2.9 trillion, has attracted regulatory attention as authorities seek to manage potential risks.
China's property market is seeing strong sales and rising rents, indicating a continuing demand for housing that pessimists are missing, according to veteran economist Hong Hao.
China's economic slump is worsening due to the prolonged property crisis, with missed payments on investment products by a major trust company and a fall in home prices adding to concerns.
The collapse of Evergrande, China's second-largest property developer, has raised concerns about a potential financial crisis and a broader liquidity crisis in the country, as well as the impact on China's housing market and economy.
China's weak economy, including an unstable property market and weak consumer demand, is posing risks to global markets and economies like the US, according to experts.
China's economy is facing challenges with slowing growth, rising debt, tumbling stock markets, and a property sector crisis, and some analysts believe that heavy-handed government intervention and a lack of confidence are underlying causes that cannot be easily fixed. However, others argue that China's problems are solvable and that it remains a superpower despite its considerable problems.
China's real-estate market is experiencing a significant downturn, with Evergrande's bankruptcy filing signaling broader economic struggles that will have worldwide ramifications, impacting the global economy, commodities demand, and potentially leading to geopolitical tensions as China seeks to redirect the restless energy of its unemployed youth.
China's current property crisis is not as severe as the 2008 Lehman Brothers collapse, according to the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER).
China's hybrid economic model, which combines state planning with market forces, is facing challenges as the country struggles with weak economic indicators, including high youth unemployment and falling prices, and the property market experiences financial distress due to government interventions and market dynamics; policymakers must implement short-term measures to boost market confidence, such as managing property-sector defaults and easing housing investment restrictions, while also undertaking long-term structural reforms to address moral hazards, promote fiscal responsibility, and protect private businesses and foreign investors.
China Evergrande Group, the world's most-indebted property developer, reported a narrower net loss for the first half of the year due to increased revenue, but it is still facing a crisis in China's property sector characterized by debt defaults and shattered consumer confidence in the country's economy.
China's economic problems are beginning to resemble Japan's long-lasting issues, as a real estate crisis, an aging population, surging youth unemployment, and high local government debts create a crisis of confidence, potentially leading to a "lost decade" of economic stagnation and deflation, while Japan shows signs of climbing out of its decades-long economic nightmare with rising inflation and a potentially optimistic outlook.
China's largest property developer, Country Garden, is on the brink of defaulting on its massive debts, reinforcing the deep slump in China's real estate market and potentially impacting the country's financial sector and global markets.
China's real estate market is facing a potential crisis as Country Garden, once the country's largest property developer, experiences financial strains and missed payments, raising concerns about its impact on the Chinese economy and global stability.
China is planning to relax home-purchase restrictions and implement new measures to address the debt crisis in its property sector, which accounts for a quarter of its economy, in an effort to boost consumer demand.
China's economy is facing numerous challenges, including high youth unemployment, real estate sector losses, sluggish growth in banks, shrinking manufacturing activity, and lack of investor confidence, indicating deeper systemic issues rather than cyclical ones.
China's relief measures to support the property sector have spurred a home-buying spree in Beijing and Shanghai, with transaction volumes in both cities increasing significantly, indicating robust housing demand; however, concerns persist that this demand may not be sustained due to other restrictions and a faltering growth outlook.
China's property sector remains in crisis as 34 out of the top 50 developers have defaulted on debt, with $1.5 billion of combined bond payments due in September.
China's real estate sector is facing a split market, with sales picking up in larger cities while slowing down in smaller cities, but further policy support is expected to stabilize the finances of property developers and dispel financial panic in the next two months.
China's real estate and construction sectors are struggling, leading to fears of economic stagnation as consumer spending declines and other areas of the economy are not growing fast enough to make up the difference.
China's property sector continues to struggle with deepening falls in new home prices, property investment, and sales in August, despite recent support measures, adding pressure to the country's economy.
China's housing crisis continues as thousands of building projects are halted or slowed, leading to defaults and restructuring, a loss of confidence in the market, and a decline in sales.
China's largest developer, Country Garden Holdings, is facing a major crisis as it struggles with a mountain of debt repayments, a slowing property market, and negative sentiment towards the sector following defaults by other Chinese peers; the company's focus on smaller cities has become a disadvantage as the housing market faces a potential decline.
China's property market is in crisis with a surplus of empty apartments, estimated to be enough to accommodate 3 billion people, according to a former official, signaling ongoing challenges for the sector despite official claims of a "resilient" economy.
China's property sector has slumped since 2021, with big-name developers teetering close to default and an abundance of vacant homes that even China's population of 1.4 billion can't fill, according to a former official.
China is facing a housing crisis with rows of empty homes, leaving the country with an estimated 65-80 million vacant units, indicating a long-term decline in housing demand and raising concerns about the nation's economic growth.
China's urbanization drive is slowing down, which is expected to further impact the struggling property sector that has been plagued by debt problems and declining consumer confidence. Managing the excess housing supply and diversifying the economy away from reliance on the property sector are crucial for a healthier Chinese economy.
President Xi Jinping's efforts to tackle the housing crisis in China face obstacles as multiple property developers, including Evergrande and China Oceanwide, deal with debt restructuring, liquidation, and potential defaults, leading to investor confusion about the government's plan to stabilize the market.
China's property crisis, characterized by an excess of empty homes, could take up to a decade to resolve, according to economist Hao Hong, with the country's urbanization process stagnating and the property sector's contribution to GDP declining.
China's economic outlook, particularly for the real estate sector, is expected to become clearer in the last three months of the year, with potential government support and loosening of restrictions to stabilize the housing market and allow the economy to recover fully by mid-2024. However, economists predict that real estate growth will remain weak and prices may fall gradually, as significant price declines could have adverse social consequences.
China's real estate crisis, highlighted by Evergrande's bankruptcy, is leaving homebuyers worried about the fate of their investments as other property giants face similar financial troubles and fears of house price depreciation rise.
China's property market blowup, which has led to major developers struggling and low housing sales, may not necessarily result in a financial crisis due to the unique characteristics of China's housing market and Beijing's control over the financial system, but it is expected to cause significant damage to bank balance sheets and potentially lead to widespread financial turbulence if support is not provided to local governments and small lenders.
China's property crisis poses significant challenges for an economy heavily reliant on real estate, although there are some sectors that may benefit from the situation.
China's real estate crisis continues as Country Garden warns investors of a possible default on its $190 billion debt, highlighting the persistent weakness in the property market and posing a major threat to the country's growth prospects.
China's real estate sector, particularly Country Garden, is facing severe financial distress, indicating a significant downturn in the Chinese economy as a whole.
China's economic growth model, built on real estate speculation and debt, is starting to unravel as the property market collapses and other sectors show strain, leading to shrinking demand, unstable supply chains, and a more precarious global economic landscape.
China's housing crisis, triggered by the default of developer China Evergrande, is deepening, causing doubts about the future of China's economic growth and eroding trust in the government's promises, with economists and international institutions calling for actions to stabilize the situation and shift the country's reliance from real estate to consumer-driven growth.
Two major companies in China's property debt crisis, Country Garden Holdings and China Evergrande Group, are facing potential defaults and asset liquidation, which could exacerbate the turmoil in the country's housing sector and pose a threat to financial stability.
China's real estate market is declining, debt deflation is a concern, its workforce is shrinking, and GDP growth is slowing, leading to warnings of "Japanisation" and prolonged economic malaise, worsened by President Xi Jinping's autocratic rule and economic imbalances far worse than Japan's in 1990.
China's property market is struggling to recover despite government stimulus measures, as economic uncertainty and low buyer confidence continue to dampen demand, with the debt crisis in the sector further impacting the outlook.
China's economy grew at 4.9% but the real estate crisis and high government debt levels continue to dampen growth, raising concerns about the country's economic recovery.
China's troubled property market is unlikely to recover in the short term, as economic uncertainty and low buyer confidence continue to hamper demand, despite government stimulus measures; home prices fell for the third consecutive month in September, and property sales and investment have also seen double-digit declines.