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2010-12-19 China-Japan-Koreas

China's Empty Potemkin Ghost Cities: Real Estate Bubble?

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Posted by Frank G 2010-12-19 19:34|| || Front Page|| [7 views ] Top

#1 Counting cars isn't an accurate measure of occupancy in China. Chinese car ownership still isn't anywhere near our levels and most Chinese outside of the major Eastern cities still don't own one. Can you count bicycles with those pictures? Or maybe look for transit buses depending on what day/time these pictures were taken.

Most Chinese ride the bus if they are outside of the major cities. Most of these places appear to be in the interior of China so better not use car counts to judge occupancy.

Posted by crosspatch 2010-12-19 20:01|| 2010-12-19 20:01|| Front Page Top

#2 CP - ok, fair enough. See buses? queues at bus stops? herds of bicycles? how about pedestrians? just saying...

Posted by Frank G 2010-12-19 20:10|| 2010-12-19 20:10|| Front Page Top

#3 Ordos may be empty but it's not unowned. The majority of the houses have been sold. When people say that nothing lives there, others say "money lives there" It is essentially their retirement bolthole, which because China doesn't have a land tax is an excellent way of preserving wealth. I still have my doubts, so we will see if I'm right or wrong.

Posted by tipper 2010-12-19 20:52|| 2010-12-19 20:52|| Front Page Top

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