Abandoned projects shatter confidence in China’s housing

In a country where private homeownership was only legalised two decades ago, ordinary Chinese are discovering how quickly fortunes can turn in the housing market.

Charlie Zhu, Emma Dong and Amanda Wang

Dec 13, 2021 – 2.06pm

Email LinkedIn Twitter Facebook

Subscribe to gift this article

Gift 5 articles to anyone you choose each month when you subscribe.

Subscribe now

Already a subscriber?

Construction cranes stand idle in China’s Yunnan Province, on the easternmost edge of the Himalayas. Building has ground to a halt on Hainan, off the coast of Vietnam, and up in Heilongjiang, along the Russian border.

Across China, tens of millions of square metres of unfinished apartment buildings – the legacy of a real estate boom gone awry in 2021 – are derailing countless dreams of owning a home.

Bloomberg