HeF

In China Housing Is Still Up, but Rationing Is Spreading

PLD, the real estate market is acting a little strange. I hear that prices in Shanghai are stable, but sales volumes are down, and then I hear that in order to maintain the fiction of stable prices, all sorts of discounts are applied -- for example a woman bought an apartment at the listed price but then was given a smaller apartment just upstairs as a "gift". Some gift -- she now has a duplex. Meanwhile real estate prices around the country are up over the quarter, but real estate agencies in Shenzhen are firing up to a third of their employees. It is a little hard to know exactly what is going on, but clearly people are concerned.