4 ms·

How much of that concrete was poured into ghost cities?

by _Algernon_ 1y ago

neptuneskeptic 1y ago
Name a ghost city
- dr-detroit 1y ago
  [dead]
bryanlarsen 1y ago
Building in advance of demand is something the US should do a lot more of. Find a >10 year old story about a Chinese ghost city, then Google current population. It'll be full.
- RandomBacon 1y ago
  Where I live, they build a four-lane highway, then immediately after completing it, they start renovations on the same highway to expand it into a six-lane highway. While the U.S. has Eminent Domain, although China's version seems to be more impactful (displacing 1.3 million people for the Three Gorges Dam).
  - Fricken 1y ago
    I know nothing of Chinese property rights, but they must be strong or they wouldn't have the phenomenon of nail houses: https://www.theguardian.com/cities/gallery/2014/apr/15/china-nail-houses-in-pictures-property-development https://www.theguardian.com/cities/gallery/2014/apr/15/china...
    - RandomBacon 1y ago
      The U.S. has nail houses too... In fact nail houses were a thing in the U.S. long before in China. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holdout_(real_estate) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holdout_(real_estate)
- refurb 1y ago
  Building several fold more home than there are people when your demographics are moving the other direction is called debt fueled trap.
  - bryanlarsen 1y ago
    China still has significant internal migration from rural areas to the cities. They're building houses in areas people want to move to.
    - refurb 1y ago
      https://www.reuters.com/world/china/even-chinas-14-bln-population-cant-fill-all-its-vacant-homes-former-official-2023-09-23/ https://www.reuters.com/world/china/even-chinas-14-bln-popul... "Even China's population of 1.4 billion would not be enough to fill all the empty apartments littered across the country, a former official said on Saturday, in a rare public critique of the country's crisis-hit property market." Now, housing gets old, people upgrade, so that supply will eventually be soaked up. But the debt overhang on local governments and indivudal Chinese is the killer. They've built up several years of housing supply and now get to pay for it all while it stays empty for a few years - plus the value is dropping. It's a massive drag on the economy as all that investment is locked up and unproductive.

How much of that concrete was poured into ghost cities?

neptuneskeptic 1y ago

Name a ghost city

dr-detroit 1y ago
[dead]

bryanlarsen 1y ago

Building in advance of demand is something the US should do a lot more of. Find a >10 year old story about a Chinese ghost city, then Google current population. It'll be full.

RandomBacon 1y ago
Where I live, they build a four-lane highway, then immediately after completing it, they start renovations on the same highway to expand it into a six-lane highway. While the U.S. has Eminent Domain, although China's version seems to be more impactful (displacing 1.3 million people for the Three Gorges Dam).
- Fricken 1y ago
  I know nothing of Chinese property rights, but they must be strong or they wouldn't have the phenomenon of nail houses: https://www.theguardian.com/cities/gallery/2014/apr/15/china-nail-houses-in-pictures-property-development https://www.theguardian.com/cities/gallery/2014/apr/15/china...
  - RandomBacon 1y ago
    The U.S. has nail houses too... In fact nail houses were a thing in the U.S. long before in China. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holdout_(real_estate) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holdout_(real_estate)
refurb 1y ago
Building several fold more home than there are people when your demographics are moving the other direction is called debt fueled trap.
- bryanlarsen 1y ago
  China still has significant internal migration from rural areas to the cities. They're building houses in areas people want to move to.
  - refurb 1y ago
    https://www.reuters.com/world/china/even-chinas-14-bln-population-cant-fill-all-its-vacant-homes-former-official-2023-09-23/ https://www.reuters.com/world/china/even-chinas-14-bln-popul... "Even China's population of 1.4 billion would not be enough to fill all the empty apartments littered across the country, a former official said on Saturday, in a rare public critique of the country's crisis-hit property market." Now, housing gets old, people upgrade, so that supply will eventually be soaked up. But the debt overhang on local governments and indivudal Chinese is the killer. They've built up several years of housing supply and now get to pay for it all while it stays empty for a few years - plus the value is dropping. It's a massive drag on the economy as all that investment is locked up and unproductive.