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There are 90 million currently empty homes in China.

by zepto 5y ago

endisneigh 5y ago
So what? USA has more empty homes per capita (17 million for 330 million citizens, vs. 60 million in China for over 1.3 billion). If you compare it by density it looks even worse for the USA. In any case, it's not really a useful, or meaningful metric anyway. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-21/china-property-bust-evergrande/100472190 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-21/china-property-bust-e... https://data.census.gov/cedsci/table?t=Vacancy&d=ACS%201-Year%20Estimates%20Detailed%20Tables&tid=ACSDT1Y2019.B25002 https://data.census.gov/cedsci/table?t=Vacancy&d=ACS%201-Yea...
- dfee 5y ago
  Your math seems suspect. You also appear to have a slant. The result is a reluctance to take your perspective seriously.
- frenchy 5y ago
  > So what? USA has more empty homes per capita (17 million for 330 million citizens, vs. 60 million in China for over 1.3 billion) I have no horse in this game, but 17/300 = 5.2% and 90/1300 = 6.9%. (edit: wikipedia says population of China is 1.4 billion, which would give 6.4%).
  - endisneigh 5y ago
    you're using the wrong numbers here. 17/330 = 5.2% 60/1400 = 4.2% the grandparent poster was mistaken (the 90 million represented the amount of people the empty housing could house, not the amount of empty homes itself) so I found real number and included the link.
    - frenchy 5y ago
      Oh! That makes a difference.
- sizzle 5y ago
  Yeah but out of that USA total, how many vacant properties are from foreign investors, let alone Chinese investors trying to stash their wealth out of reach of the CCP.
hardtke 5y ago
A Chinese friend once explained to me that local governments in China have very little ability to tax. Taxes all get sent to the central government and the central government never sends enough back to the local government. The most efficient way for a local government to raise revenue is to turn farmland into developable land and sell it to developers. Many of these empty homes come from such schemes. Obviously some of these developments turn into vibrant communities, but there are some that remain mostly empty and are held by individuals who are speculating that the prices of these empty condos will go up.

There are 90 million currently empty homes in China.

by zepto 5y ago

There are 90 million currently empty homes in China.

So what? USA has more empty homes per capita (17 million for 330 million citizens, vs. 60 million in China for over 1.3 billion). If you compare it by density it looks even worse for the USA. In any case, it's not really a useful, or meaningful metric anyway. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-21/china-property-bust-evergrande/100472190 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-21/china-property-bust-e... https://data.census.gov/cedsci/table?t=Vacancy&d=ACS%201-Year%20Estimates%20Detailed%20Tables&tid=ACSDT1Y2019.B25002 https://data.census.gov/cedsci/table?t=Vacancy&d=ACS%201-Yea...

dfee 5y ago
Your math seems suspect. You also appear to have a slant. The result is a reluctance to take your perspective seriously.
frenchy 5y ago
> So what? USA has more empty homes per capita (17 million for 330 million citizens, vs. 60 million in China for over 1.3 billion) I have no horse in this game, but 17/300 = 5.2% and 90/1300 = 6.9%. (edit: wikipedia says population of China is 1.4 billion, which would give 6.4%).
- endisneigh 5y ago
  you're using the wrong numbers here. 17/330 = 5.2% 60/1400 = 4.2% the grandparent poster was mistaken (the 90 million represented the amount of people the empty housing could house, not the amount of empty homes itself) so I found real number and included the link.
  - frenchy 5y ago
    Oh! That makes a difference.
sizzle 5y ago
Yeah but out of that USA total, how many vacant properties are from foreign investors, let alone Chinese investors trying to stash their wealth out of reach of the CCP.

hardtke 5y ago

A Chinese friend once explained to me that local governments in China have very little ability to tax. Taxes all get sent to the central government and the central government never sends enough back to the local government. The most efficient way for a local government to raise revenue is to turn farmland into developable land and sell it to developers. Many of these empty homes come from such schemes. Obviously some of these developments turn into vibrant communities, but there are some that remain mostly empty and are held by individuals who are speculating that the prices of these empty condos will go up.