Why China needs to fill its empty homes
The country’s economy is broken. A recovery requires a healthier property market
If not another flat was built and sales continued at their current pace, it would take eight years to sell all the homes lying dormant around Luoyang, a city of 7m in central China. The region is a hot spot for the country’s property crisis, where years of overbuilding have turned entire districts into housing graveyards. Sprawling wastelands of concrete and glass scar the city.
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This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “Haunted by ghosts”
Finance & economics November 2nd 2024
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- Why China needs to fill its empty homes
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From the November 2nd 2024 edition
Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents
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The great-man theory of Wall Street
Why finance is still dominated by bold individuals
Hong Kong’s property slump may be terminal
Demographics and geopolitics will make a recovery harder
Why everyone wants to lend to weak companies
An unanticipated side-effect of Donald Trump’s election victory
American veterans now receive absurdly generous benefits
An enormous rise in disability payments may complicate debt-reduction efforts
Why Black Friday sales grow more annoying every year
Nobody is to blame. Everyone suffers
Trump wastes no time in reigniting trade wars
Canada and Mexico look likely to suffer
