Still bad news coming from China: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-...-11-month-low-employment-weakest-over-4-years
Interbank rates are rising again in China .... http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-07-25/how-deep-real-economic-problem-china
http://www.news.com.au/world-news/c...lion-to-cut-smog/story-fndir2ev-1226685290084 China to spend $300 billion to cut smog " CHINA'S government plans to spend 1700 billion yuan ($302 billion) to tackle air pollution over the next five years, after smog became a major source of social discontent. "
One thing I've never understood about this theory of massive housing oversupply: I have been to China many times and everything is crowded as hell and never once have I seen anything resembling a ghost city. Despite all this alleged oversupply, housing prices are ridiculously expensive. The most expensive houses (calculated based on median income versus median home price) in the world are in Chinese cities. This is despite the fact that consumers take out relatively conservative mortgages by western standards, and consumers tend to have a savings rate of 30%, versus zero in the US. Furthermore, you have the government trying to slow down the housing market by putting restrictions on lending and buying..can you imagine the US government having the foresight to do this before the US housing bubble? I'm sure there are some overbuilt projects in some rural cities. But how prevalent is it? No one knows..there is no hard data, only speculation. This is inefficiency, just like how US construction has inefficiencies too. The use of overpriced union works is one such example. Building these rural 'ghost towns' actually cost very little because of loose building codes, and very cheap, very hard working rural workers.
I think you have very good observation and understanding. My guess is it would be possible that there could be a mini boom (perhaps up 20+%) first for China's property market in these two years before the foreseeable bubble really bursts (say down 35+%). An article says it would probably start from China Hong Kong or South East Asian countries http://snakeln.wordpress.com/ .
I've been to China on different occasions the past several years. Every time I go I can't help but notice the numerous cranes next to newly developing skyscrapers. Their massive infrastructure spending and construction has been going on for years fueling their economy. I think the anecdotal reports of overbuilding are true. Furthermore, the price of copper tells part of the story. Classic head and shoulders topping pattern that's barely holding on to 3.00 support level. I think the breaking of that support would be concurrent with the anticipated hard landing in China. China in past years has accounted for ~ 40% of copper demand worldwide.