Chinese Property Stocks Rally on Hope for More Policy Support
Shares of Chinese property developers extended a rally after Beijing announced forceful measures to shore up the beleaguered property market.
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Shares of Chinese property developers extended a rally after Beijing announced forceful measures to shore up the beleaguered property market.
The People’s Bank of China will establish a nationwide program to unleash 300 billion yuan ($41.5 billion) in cheap funding to help state-owned companies buy unsold homes, officials announced.
Land Securities Group Plc wrote down the value of its City of London office portfolio by almost 14% last year, dragging the UK commercial real estate landlord to a full year loss.
Football’s global governing body opened the door to potentially moving its headquarters from Zurich, while stressing that it’s “happy” for now having its main office in Switzerland
China’s economic recovery tilted even further toward manufacturing, leaving it more vulnerable to trade barriers and highlighting the stakes of a new bid to shore up domestic demand.
Sep 30, 2016
Reuters
,Canadian economic growth got a big boost from oil production in July, but a slowdown in construction was in evidence as well, an early indication of the pain that could come with the end of the country's years-long housing boom.
With clear signs of cooling in Vancouver real estate, the most expensive market, and only Toronto still booming, some economists are braced for a hit to construction and real estate, which they warn could trickle into other sectors as consumers pull back.
The shift would follow a two-year slump in Canada's energy sector caused by plunging crude prices.
"It's one weakness replacing another," said Paul Ashworth, chief North America economist at Capital Economics.
"While it's not necessarily the case that the economy will get worse, it does mean economic growth will continue below its potential, the unemployment rate could edge up, and we'll be even longer without the recovery that the Bank of Canada expects."
Gross domestic product grew 0.5 per cent in July, topping analysts' forecasts for a gain of 0.3 per cent, Statistics Canada said on Friday.
But GDP would have been essentially unchanged without the 19 per cent bounce back in non-conventional oil production that followed wildfire-related shutdowns in the spring.
By contrast, Canadian housing construction fell 1.8 per cent in July, while output by real estate agents and brokers fell 1.0 per cent in the month.
The GDP data for July also does not take into account the Vancouver slowdown that has followed the introduction of a 15 per cent foreign buyer tax in the city, imposed in August.
Sherry Cooper, chief economist of Dominion Lending Centres, said the housing decline will go beyond residential construction, as the slowdown hits the income and spending of the real estate sector, mortgage brokers and banks and trickles into renovation and durable goods consumption.
To be sure, even as sales cool in Vancouver, prices continue to rise, and Toronto remains red hot, fueling continued concern among some that a bubble continues.
Cooper worries the slowdown could be worsened by the belated actions of policymakers looking for more ways to slow a market that many have labeled a bubble for years.
"What concerns me is the government seems to want to be proactive, and that's dangerous, because if they do too much in an environment where housing is already slowing, we could end up with much more of a slowdown than they really want," she said.