Trying to understand China’s various asset bubbles is a full-time job. The latest bubble has emerged in the China property market where some regions have reported home price growth of 50% year-on-year.
China Property Buyers Don’t Know There’s A Bubble
To shed some light on the situation on the ground, analysts in UBS’s Property, Economics and Banks teams collaborated with UBS Evidence Lab in a large-scale survey of 3,368 Chinese consumers, aged 21-64 who reside in Tier 1, 2 and 3 cities (159 cities in total) in China to get a better understanding of consumers’ home buying intentions. The survey took place during late August/early September before lawmakers’ measures to cool the market began to take effect.
The key findings of the survey were thus:
14% of consumers bought in the last 12 months, with 70% of buying in Tier 3 cities, showing that the demand for property is extending out of the more coveted Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities. Most of these sales were made as an investment.