China’s Property Market On The Verge Of Collapse?

It looks as if China’s property market is finally starting to roll over as data the country’s National Bureau of Statistics and research from BMI Research indicates that property prices in primary cities are starting to fall and the number of non-performing property loans held by banks is starting to rise.

• Deutsche Bank: China property certainly in a bubble
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Last month, data released by the National Bureau of Statistics revealed prices of newly built residential properties dropped between 0.1% and 0.4% in December across 12 out of 15 “hotspot” cities. This is first sign of market weakness in China’s primary property market cities, which have seen the majority of home price growth during the past months. In key cities such as Shanghai and Beijing price rises reached 5% a month at the height of the property boom last summer.

After 2015’s dramatic stock rout, investors rushed to buy property during 2016 but due to fears of market overheating, more than 20 city governments past restrictions on house purchases and increased the minimum down payment required for a mortgage last autumn.