Thanks Godfrey, a good summary of why China's housing market has little to do with the US. A couple of years ago, I was chatting with a Canadian that I worked with and he claimed that there was a big housing project that he had seen in Beijing that was definitely a 'ghost city'. I laughed and told him that was impossible. FIrst of all, new housing projects generally stand empty for a couple of years in order for the pollution of building materials to dissipate. Also, there can be longstanding disputes between different entities as to owns and stands to benefit from the project and also it does happen that projects are built without the right permission and that can also land up in court. In additon, there could be major quality flaws in construction that might require renovation or even demolition. However, there are no ghost cities in any major Chinese city and if there are large numbers of vacancies, they are sure to be filled in time. He didn't know any of that, of course, but if he'd read your article, he might have, all the best, Mike Liston
Thanks Godfrey, a good summary of why China's housing market has little to do with the US. A couple of years ago, I was chatting with a Canadian that I worked with and he claimed that there was a big housing project that he had seen in Beijing that was definitely a 'ghost city'. I laughed and told him that was impossible. FIrst of all, new housing projects generally stand empty for a couple of years in order for the pollution of building materials to dissipate. Also, there can be longstanding disputes between different entities as to owns and stands to benefit from the project and also it does happen that projects are built without the right permission and that can also land up in court. In additon, there could be major quality flaws in construction that might require renovation or even demolition. However, there are no ghost cities in any major Chinese city and if there are large numbers of vacancies, they are sure to be filled in time. He didn't know any of that, of course, but if he'd read your article, he might have, all the best, Mike Liston