I know they're very active in investing in real estate in other countries, but how about in China?
90% of people in China own their homes, it's kind of apples and oranges compared to the west, where around only 60% do.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_home_ownership_rate
89.57% of housing units in China are occupied by the owner of said unit, seems pretty straightforward to me.
Who said anything about "anecdotally"? I posted a link to the statistics in another comment. The arrogance on this site is becoming tiresome.
It wasn't broken a year ago when I first came across the article. And assuming something as anecdotal because it doesn't fit your worldview is the epitome of arrogance.
Here is a link to a more in depth article, written by Chinese, in a peer reviewed publication with working citations that says the exact same thing.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7546956/#:~:text=Today%20China%20is%20a%20country,et%20al.%2C%202020).
idk about all of China but Shenzhen is beginning a project of putting the majority of its population in public housing https://www.caixinglobal.com/2020-09-03/pricey-shenzhen-aims-to-put-60-of-its-people-in-public-housing-101600958.html
Laws differ greatly from cities to cities and after Xi became president the governments of all levels are getting more aggressive in controlling speculation. There’s no real property tax, for example, but the government is weighing on implementing one.
It’s was definitely possible to own several condos/houses (my parents own 4 in 2 different cities, my uncle and aunt own 6 in 4 different cities; these were all bought in the 2000s and early 2010s). But local governments are recently trying to rein in on that , though their measures are ... super lukewarm. For example, in order to limit second homes, Beijing recently implemented this rule that you can’t get a mortgage for a second home unless you put down a 60% downpayment; they’ve also raised the transaction tax on second homes, but there’s no property tax as of yet.
Property in China is super odd. In many large cities, rent is ridiculously cheap compared to value. My parents’ primary residence (2b2b), for example, could sell at about $1.4 million but could only rent at about $900 per month.
Also I don’t think there’s even close to as much social stigma around “adult children (even married ones!) moving back in with the parents” in much of China as there is in the United States. I don’t know how that affect the definition used in Chinese statistics (whether living with parents who own the property count as you owning as well for example), but to be honest I think it’s psychologically much saner than having this pressure to move out just to be “grown up.”
It's almost impossible to have a second home in China (I think you need to wait 60 years or something, I forgot, but it's hard). You can't have more than two houses as far as I'm aware. Also you need to prove that you live in the province the house is located in, and stay there a couple of years there. If I have more time I can try to look into it in more detail.
No one has mentioned it yet, but all urban real estate in China operates on leases.
I'm not fully up to speed on property rights in China, but the little I know is that it's not fully legal to privately own land in China for any purpose. It's only possible to privately own land use rights. The closest thing is you might be able to privately own parts of a building. Rural land is owned and managed by agricultural collective units, urban land is leased out by the state, but that's where I'm not fully sure how it works, since I believe you can still invest and draw a profit off land and buildings you're leasing. So I believe a real estate investor can mortgage off property to residents while operating under a state lease.
It's not fully comparable countries where you can simply purchase land privately.
That's way too long term for speculators, they barely even price in extreme weather and climate collapse. They're still trading at that timescale, lol, but not really thinking at that timescale.
