china real estate

The Shanghai Composite is as close to a proxy for public firms in China as investors can get, and indexes are believed to reflect where markets think a nation's economy is headed. So what does it mean that, despite China's white-hot growth, the Shanghai Composite has been seriously lagging the S&P 500?

Japan's Nikkei 225 Index advanced 2.7% on Friday, ending a turbulent week at 9,207. In Hong Kong the Hang Seng Index inched up 0.1% to 22,300 and in China the Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.3% to close at 2,907.

Chinese policy makers are scratching their heads after a raft of measures meant to cool the country's red-hot real estate market seem to have done little to accomplish their aim. Rising property shares sent Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index up 1.3% Friday, while China's Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.9%, and in Japan the Nikkei 225 Index inched up 0.1%.

Bargain hunters poured money into Chinese shares Friday, sending the Shanghai Composite Index surging 1.4%. In Hong Kong, however, the Hang Seng Index lost 0.5%, and in Japan, the Nikkei 225 tumbled 1.6%.

The dollar is looking mighty attractive, thanks to a reviving U.S. economy and eurozone woes, and it will only get stronger as traders who gambled that it would fall buy dollars to unwind their bad bets. Add in China's desperate need to get its overheated economy in check, and commodities prices look like they have nowhere to go but down.

Hong Kong took a new step this week to let some air out of its real estate bubble, levying a heavy tax on property flippers -- a move that has already sent asking prices there downward. But Hong Kong's real estate risks are dwarfed by those in Mainland China.

Asian markets were mixed Monday. In Japan the Nikkei 225 Index rose 1.1%, helped by new numbers showing the nation's economy outpaced economists' predictions and grew more than expected in the third quarter. In China the Shanghai Composite Index advanced 1% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index slid 0.8%.

China's local governments are dependent on fees and taxes from developers. Builders gorge on no-cost credit from state-controlled banks to churn out high-end homes most Chinese can't afford. Sounds like a familiar recipe for disaster.

Inflation hawks and doves at China's central bank are dueling over how to tame China's red-hot real estate market. A bursting of the Chinese housing bubble could have serious consequences for the U.S. and the world.

After sagging in the global financial meltdown of 2008, property values in China's urban centers skyrocketed in 2009. Some economists believe Chinese real estate is now experiencing a bubble, and when that bubble pops, it could threaten the global economic recovery.