Real Estate

China’s Project Whitelist, launched at the start of the year, exists to ensure bank funding for property development. But it is there to protect projects, not the developers behind them.

Encumbered by an impotent fiscal policy and a sluggish stock market, bank lending could be China’s only route to economic recovery.

With its economy embattled and investors fleeing in droves, getting good data on China has never been more important. There are some great analysts and research shops out there. Trouble is, too many China-facing reports suffer from a lack of imagination, groupthink brought on by a fear of irritating Beijing and an over-reliance on state data. That must change.

At the start of 2023, analysts sized China and liked what they saw: an economy reopening after three years of Covid isolation, and ready once again to roar. Nothing of the sort has happened and corporates and institutional investors are now fleeing the market in droves.

As the Chinese property crisis deepens, a new round of bank-led rescue efforts is on the horizon. While banks must shoulder part of the blame for the crisis, their options for action are limited.

Too many Chinese investors focus on the originator more than the asset pool. That undermines one of the crucial purposes of securitization.

The Sultan of Johor stresses he needs to earn a living just like his fellow countrymen. His investments, often alongside those of billionaire Vincent Tan, span telecoms, supermarket chains and property. But will the ambitious developments he’s backed in his home state prove a royal flush or a real estate bust?