Tag: Real Estate and Housing (Residential)

They Poured Their Savings Into Homes That Were Never Built

Chin@Strategy

To Tang Chao, the apartment in northeast China was where he and his wife were going to start a new life together. They put down tens of thousands of dollars for it. But months past its scheduled completion, a concrete shell with wiring protruding from the walls and piles of dirt on the floor was all there was to show for the expense. Soon, even their marriage unraveled. In another city, a man bought a space for a grocery business he thought would help give his young son a better…

Why China’s Shrinking Population Is Cause for Alarm

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New data released this week by the Chinese government revealed that China’s population has begun to shrink, a momentous shift that will have broad ripple effects both domestically and globally. The government said on Tuesday that deaths last year in China had outnumbered births for the first time in decades. This could spell the end of China’s position as the world’s most populous country, a transition that could profoundly reshape the global economy in the long run. India’s total population is expected to surpass China’s later this year, according to…

China Is Finally Trying to Fix Its Housing Crisis

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More than a year after one of China’s biggest real estate developers began to collapse, trouble has rippled through cities across the country. Dozens of other developers have also missed debt payments, the sale of new homes has plunged and construction cranes have come to a standstill at many sites. This week the Chinese government, which until now has stayed largely on the sidelines of the country’s housing crash, has taken its most forceful steps so far to try to minimize the damage from the turmoil that has enveloped China…

In Global Slowdown, China Holds Sway Over Countries’ Fates

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BEIJING — When Suriname couldn’t make its debt payments, a Chinese state bank seized the money from one of the South American country’s accounts. As Pakistan has struggled to cope with a devastating flood that has inundated a third of the country, its loan repayments to China have been rising fast. When Kenyans and Angolans went to the polls in presidential elections in August, the countries’ Chinese loans, and how to repay them, were a hot-button political issue. Across much of the developing world, China finds itself in an uncomfortable…

Real Estate Crisis Is at the Heart of China’s Economic Troubles

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For decades, buying property was considered a safe investment in China. Now, instead of building a foundation of wealth for the country’s middle class, real estate has become a source of discontent and anger. In more than 100 cities across China, hundreds of thousands of Chinese homeowners are banding together and refusing to repay loans on unfinished properties, one of the most widespread acts of public defiance in a country where even minor protests are quelled. The boycotts are part of the fallout from a worsening Chinese economy, slowed by…

What Default? With Confetti and Fanfare, Evergrande Says It’s Ready to Build.

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To mark the completion of a residential complex called World City, the indebted property giant China Evergrande Group held an elaborate red carpet ceremony on Monday, with eight cannons firing off confetti before a cheering crowd. The company then released a series of images featuring newly completed buildings covered with bright red decorations. Just weeks earlier, Evergrande had been declared in default. The developer has unpaid bills in excess of $300 billion and has struggled to pay back its creditors and business partners. Some in China saw the company’s celebrations…

China Evergrande Investors Relax Despite Default Deadline

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HONG KONG — For months, as a troubled property company called China Evergrande spooked global markets with its financial problems, Beijing sat on the sidelines. Now, the government is taking a more hands-on role. Evergrande, the world’s most indebted property developer, said officials from several state-backed institutions had joined a risk committee that would help the company restructure itself. The committee, led by Evergrande’s founder, Xu Jiayin, will “play an important role in mitigating and eliminating future risks,” the company said in a filing late on Monday. The formation of…

China Evergrande Troubles Spread Through Property Sector

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When times were flush for the property developer China Fortune Land, it bought a trophy soccer club and recruited star athletes from Argentina. These days, the players with the club, Hebei F.C., are on indefinite leave because it can’t afford to keep the lights on. The developer is one of a growing number facing financial strain in China, challenging the narrative from Beijing that it can keep the country’s corporate debt crisis under control while avoiding the disorderly collapse of its property giants. Global markets just weeks ago were fretting…

A Threat to China’s Economy

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Is China in Big Trouble?

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These are scary times in America, with one of our major parties careening into authoritarianism and the other having difficulty moving forward thanks to two uncooperative senators. Most of what I write, inevitably, focuses on the troubled prospects for our republic. But everyone needs a break. So today I want to talk about a happier topic: The risks of an economic crisis in China. OK, not exactly happier. But a change in subject, anyway. Warnings about the Chinese economy aren’t new — but until now the worriers, myself included, have…