A slate of new metrics points to China’s challenges in turning around its beleaguered property sector.
Total local government debt has ballooned to $18 trillion due to dampened property sales, and local bond issuances hit a record high for the year. The real estate industry’s listed firms have seen combined losses of more than $9 billion, a Nikkei analysis found. And analysts are worrying about the financial health of one of the country’s most reliable developers.
Beijing appears particularly sensitive to the crisis: The government reportedly ordered two real estate data providers to stop publishing figures, and Shanghai’s online censors recently took down more than 40,000 social media posts that were pessimistic about the sector.