patrick.net

How many average Chinese can afford those 64 million units? Maybe, 64M average citizens = approximately 5 percent of the population. The real estate boom in China and India is due to the new middle class speculating and betting for more; nothing to do with ordinary workers, peasants, people living in rural areas.

Then when the banks don’t give interest rates matching REAL inflation all that is left is housing to invest in.
I read in the WSJ this weekend that Chinese investors now comprise over 25% of gold purchases bought for investments reasons. This is up from essentially 0% over a decade ago.

I've always wanted to work in China as a contractor (IT). Maybe I can rent out one of those units for a cheap price on a long term contract.

jvolstad. Read this first.

http://www.michaeljohngrist.com/2009/09/collapse-toppled-apartment-building-in-shanghai/

Do you still want to live in one of them?

seaside says

jvolstad. Read this first.
http://www.michaeljohngrist.com/2009/09/collapse-toppled-apartment-building-in-shanghai/
Do you still want to live in one of them?

A great fixer upper. Built in equity. Will sell fast.

raindoctor says

How many average Chinese can afford those 64 million units?

Chinese home ownership is close to 80%. That is crazy but it is true.
You cannot find a wife if you don't have a house.
Many people have 2 or 3 houses for investment. Some have 10+.

Chinese really don't make a lot money by selling goods to US. However the trade deficit justified that why the house price is so high because Chinese believe that one day they will make just as much money as American.

xenogear3 says

raindoctor says

How many average Chinese can afford those 64 million units?

Chinese home ownership is close to 80%. That is crazy but it is true.

You cannot find a wife if you don’t have a house.

Many people have 2 or 3 houses for investment. Some have 10+.
Chinese really don’t make a lot money by selling goods to US. However the trade deficit justified that why the house price is so high because Chinese believe that one day they will make just as much money as American.

That's quite high. That doesn't sound like there's a whole lot of room to improve on that number.

burritos says

That’s quite high. That doesn’t sound like there’s a whole lot of room to improve on that number.

And they're still building.

China unlike America, have been pumping money into real growth. Like building ghost cities. We've been giving all of the Crooks that wrecked the economy gobs and gobs of money hoping they will do the right thing. Of course our money has gone down the rabbit hole and never came back out. That is why our market indexes looks like a mountainous landscape scene, where as the Chinese markets have pretty much gone straight up.

When this is over, China's standard of living is going to tower over America's, by leaps and bounds. Unlike America, China did not have an over supply but a gross under supply of adequate modern housing.
When a "house" becomes a "house" again and nothing more or nothing less, (it can only be more, when banks over value them). Then there will be 64 million people in China will get a nice place to live.
Complete with local commerce, shops and jobs.
Don't forget this is mirroring America's boom post WWII.
That laid the frame work for every thing else that followed.
If not for the towns and cities that were built, and the infrastructure that linked them we'd be no better off than we were pre WWII.

As of now, they are doing most every thing right. What they are doing wrong is Miss managing these new resources. They are pretending that the RE bubble never broke, but I doubt that's what's really going on. I suspect this is government Hoover type projects to keep the nation working and the appearance of growth. But when this is all over, they can't just make all of those structures go away. People will have to live in them and will.

Tenouncetrout says

When this is over, China’s standard of living is going to tower over America’s, by leaps and bounds. Unlike America, China did not have an over supply but a gross under supply of adequate modern housing.

I don't even know where to begin with that statement. China is one of the most suppressed countries in the world, and their citizens hardly realize it due to their government controlling all media. Their standard of living will forever stay low unless the government loses power.

Tenouncetrout says

When this is over, China’s standard of living is going to tower over America’s, by leaps and bounds. Unlike America, China did not have an over supply but a gross under supply of adequate modern housing.

Until I see a net migration of Americans willing to sit in cargo container sharing one portable toilet for 2 weeks on a cargo ship to try to get to the land of China, I will respectfully disagree.

xenogear3 says

Chinese home ownership is close to 80%.

There has been doubt cast on that number. The surveys agree, but you have to look at the details:

http://www.glgroup.com/News/Home-ownership-rates-in-China-and-the-different-ownership-titles-18749.html

Ownership has different definitions. In this case inheritable usage rights are being counted as ownership, but it's not ownership in the way we think of it. Furthermore, there are significant restrictions against alienation of property, so the market is not very liquid.

The article I read a couple of years ago said Chinese who live in the CITIES have UP TO (no definition of what up to means) 80% of something called OWNERSHIP RIGHTS (also undefined). That's a very very long way from having 80% home ownership in all of China, especially since something like 70% of the population of China lives outside the cities.

Good god, the standard of living for working chinese citizens is a 100x worse than american leeches who do nothing but live off government cheese and reproduce.

No wonder everyone wants to come to the gold ol USA.