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.