"Jack Rodman, a specialist on Chinese property, is quoted as follows in an article in the Los Angeles Times in late February 2009:
By Rodman's calculations, 500 million square feet [46 million square meters] of commercial real estate has been developed in Beijing since 2006, more than all the office space in Manhattan. And that doesn't include huge projects developed by the government. He says 100 million square feet of office space is vacant - a 14-year supply if it filled up at the same rate as in the best years, 2004 through '06, when about 7 million square feet a year was leased.Two numbers stand out there: 100 million square feet is the first one, given that's the space of office space in many smaller Asian cities in total. However, the second figure: "14 years' supply" at the best possible take-up rate is more startling, showing as it does the rampant overbuilding that went on across the Chinese capital."
... The Beijing Municipal Bureau of Statistics reported this month that housing sales in the city dropped 40% last year. Chinese economists have predicted that housing prices will drop 15% to 20% in Beijing this year. Shanghai has experienced a similar decline.
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