05-17-2012
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businessinsider.com, Mike "Mish" Shedloc
The report confirms many of the things I said would happen in regards to the Chinese real estate bubble and GDP.
Here are a few items of note.
Developers, burdened by 70% leverage ratios and loans threatening to come due, rushed to complete projects already in their pipeline, to put those units onto the market and raise cash.
That rush to complete inflated real estate investments, allegedly up 23.5% in the first quarter. Other statistics from the report tell the real story.
Year-on-year sales in Q1, for all real estate, was down 14.6%.
Residential property sales were down 17.5%
Office sales were down -10.2%
Sales in January-February were a disaster, falling 20.9% overall, compared to the first two months of 2011, -24.7% for residential.
Total amount of floor space “for sale” was up 35.5%, compared to the same date last year
Floor space of residential units “for sale” grew 47.4%.
At the end of 2011, total floor space “under construction” was roughly 4.6 times the floor space sold
A year and a half worth of excess inventory is hidden somewhere in the pipeline
