Reading the into to a companys annual report - FAIRFAX of Canada, that owns the insurance company I work for...REALLY INTERESTING comments on China and overinflated tech stocks...Im not really into investing, let our financial planner & funds do that...apparently China is in serious trouble: In the last few years we have discussed the huge real estate bubble in China. In case you continue to be a skeptic, here are a few observations from Anne Stevenson Yang, an American who has been in China for over 20 years and is the founder of JCapital Research in Beijing: 1. China added 5.9 billion square metres of commercial buildings between 2008 and 2012 – the equivalent of more than 50 Manhattans – in just five years! 2. In 2012, China completed about 2 billion square metres of residential floor space – approximately 20 million units. For perspective, the U.S. at its peak built 2 million homes in a year. 3. At the end of 2013, China had about 6.6 billion square metres of new residential space under construction, around 60 million units. 4. Yinchuan, a city of 1.2 million people including the suburbs, has 30 million square metres of available apartments – roughly 300,000 units that could house 900,000 people. This is in addition to the delivered but unoccupied units. The city of Guiyang, capital of Guizhou Province, has roughly 5.5 million extra units for a city of 5 million. 5. In almost every city Anne has visited, pretty much the whole existing housing stock has been replicated and is empty. 6. Home ownership rates in China are estimated to be over 100% versus 65% in the U.S. Many cities report ownership over 200%. Tangshan, near Beijing, is one. 7. This real estate boom could only be financed through unrestrained credit growth. Since 2009, the Chinese banks have grown by the equivalent of the entire U.S. banking system or 15% of world GDP. 8. The real estate bubble has resulted in companies extensively borrowing and investing in real estate or lending on
Posted on: Fri, 21 Mar 2014 20:23:45 +0000