China property sales more than US, UK together

[makapaaa]

<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=452><TBODY><TR vAlign=top><TD></TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top width=452 colSpan=2>Published August 25, 2009

</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top width=452 colSpan=2>China property sales more than US, UK together
Commercial property deals total US$31b in H1 as easy credit boost land sales

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(BEIJING) China outpaced the United States and the UK combined in commercial property sales in the first half of the year, Real Capital Analytics Inc (RCA) said.

China's transactions totalled US$31.2 billion following a surge in land sales after the government eased credit terms, according to RCA. US sales were US$16.2 billion in the first half, according to the report, and the UK's were US$13.7 billion.
'There's no question that China will be a more significant player on the world stage for commercial property transactions versus other Western countries,' said Dan Fasulo, the managing director at RCA. China's growth 'may not be sustainable at this level', he said.
About US$62.8 billion of commercial properties were sold during the second quarter, 17 per cent more than in the previous three months and the first increase in 18 months, RCA, a New York-based research company, said in a report yesterday.
The research firm said sales growth is the first step towards a global recovery. The first half's total sales were US$116.4 billion, 65 per cent less than a year earlier and US$500 billion below levels at the height of the market in the first half of 2007, according to the report. Countries that receive the most financial support from their governments will recover faster, said RCA.
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</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>The amount of office space sold in China rose 13 per cent in the first seven months of this year, while sales of property for commercial uses gained 22 per cent, the National Bureau of Statistics of China said in an Aug 10 report, without giving more details.
Sales in the second half may rise as investors believe that 'the economy has bottomed out, clearing some of the uncertainty', Lee Hing Yin, Colliers' director of research of East China, said in an interview yesterday.
Soho China Ltd, the biggest developer in Beijing's central business district, last week said it bought an office and retail development for 2.45 billion yuan (S$516 million) that it plans to sell within a month or two.
'Asia's looking the healthiest. They're very optimistic over there, like a young buck,' said Ray Torto, Boston-based global chief economist for CB Richard Ellis Group Inc, the world's largest real-estate broker, in an interview. 'You come back to the US and you're talking to an older man.'
The slow US recovery reflects the 'deep connections of its major institutions to the epicentre of the 2008 financial cataclysm', RCA said.
US spending was 6 per cent of the first-half amount in 2007, Mr Fasulo said, compared with China's spending of 92 per cent.
The total volume of properties in default, foreclosure or bankruptcy around the world has reached US$230 billion, increasing US$96 billion in the second quarter, RCA said.
'The growth in transactions is only a first step in the recovery process,' according to the report. 'Pricing and operating fundamentals remain in decline and debt remains scarce.' - Bloomberg
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[besotted]

China is growing

The West is crumbling

Without Chinese purchase of US Treasuries, Washington cannot fund its stimulus package

China leads the way and Singapore should go to Beijing to attract 1.5 milion PRC grads over next five years to help us thrive

If Singapore slows down import of PRC our economy will be doomed

 

[singveld]

it is a bubble, ah ha ha ha ha.(in an evil voice)

 

[liketogossip]

If Singapore slows down import of PRC our economy will be doomed

more import?? arent ah tiongs oredi floodin our economy??

 

[GoFlyKiteNow]

China is growing

The West is crumbling

Without Chinese purchase of US Treasuries, Washington cannot fund its stimulus package

China has absolutely no choice, but buy US treasuries.
The US is doing it a favor by allowing it to.
If it did not, then China would be having hyper inflation and its economy in serious trouble by now.

 

[Imperialarse]

China is growing

The West is crumbling

Without Chinese purchase of US Treasuries, Washington cannot fund its stimulus package

China leads the way and Singapore should go to Beijing to attract 1.5 milion PRC grads over next five years to help us thrive

If Singapore slows down import of PRC our economy will be doomed

Read the truth:

What Chinese Authorities Do Not Want You to See
By Tom Dyson

If the Chinese authorities had caught him making this video, they would have arrested him...

Hugh Hendry is a hedge-fund manager from Britain. Eclectica is the name of his fund. He's outspoken and critical of the establishment. You could say he's somewhat of a pariah in London's hedge-fund industry. In 2008, his fund generated 32% by making massive bearish bets...

Earlier this year, Hendry took a trip to Guangzhou, China's third-largest city after Beijing and Shanghai. There's been a huge construction boom in China in recent years, and Guangzhou is one of the hot spots. Developers have erected so many skyscrapers, Guangzhou's central business district could easily match Chicago or Boston for the number of modern, high-rise buildings.

So Hendry shot a video of the office buildings in the district. He focuses on one shiny black skyscraper with a giant neon screen at its base. It's close to 100 stories... And it's obviously brand new...

"This is a seriously large building," says Hendry. "We're talking at least half a billion dollars to construct this thing. It's empty! Who is going to fill this thing? Who is going to pay the debt that that building is resting on?"

Hendry's film shows several more skyscrapers... each as large and modern as any new tower you'd find in Manhattan... and they are all completely empty.

"This is astonishing," he concludes... You can watch the whole video here.

Thing is, the Chinese are incredibly touchy about foreign journalism. I experienced it first hand when I was in China last year and tried to organize a tour of a factory in Lanzhou. They almost arrested me when they discovered I didn't have a journalist visa. If the Chinese had known Hendry was filming empty buildings and posting his movie on the web, they would have definitely arrested him...

So why does Guangzhou have so many empty office buildings? It's because of false market signals. The Chinese government's inflation and easy-money policies have led developers to build more office space than Guangzhou needs.

Now that the world economy has fallen apart, the malinvestment sticks out like an empty skyscraper.

From the reports I've heard, it's not just Guangzhou. There are now too many factories, too many buildings, and too much infrastructure relative to demand all over China...

Instead of letting the market liquidate these mistakes when the crisis struck, the Chinese government decided to make it even worse. Over the last nine months, it has forced banks to make more terrible loans and encouraged a new batch of unnecessary construction. A second China bubble has formed. You can see this second bubble in this chart of Shanghai's stock market index. It rose over 100% between November 2008 and July 2009.

But that bubble may be about to end... Three weeks ago, the Shanghai stock market reached a peak and started falling. Now we have the downtrend. We have a fantastic opportunity to short this bubble and make a fortune as the new Chinese miracle falls apart...