The real estate bubble bursts due to Xi Jinping’s misadventure… The next target for wealthy Chinese is “Karuizawa and Atami” after the city center condominiums.

China’s real estate market will enter an even more catastrophic phase. The culprit is none other than President Xi Jinping.

Since mid-2008, Xi Jinping has imposed strict regulations on developers’ financing under the banner of “busting the real estate bubble. This was aimed at controlling the movement of money in the real estate market and further increasing centralized control, but it has backfired. One by one, developers without funds went bankrupt, and the Hengda Group, one of the largest developers in the country, faced a management crisis. Urban development has been halted, and tower blocks under construction have been left abandoned without any money to destroy them.

The Chinese government has set aside a 3 trillion yen fund for bailouts and is funneling money to developers, but it will not be enough. There are no positive factors to invest in real estate, such as the economic decline due to Corona’s lockdown policy and the fact that India will overtake China in terms of total population this year at the earliest. A recovery in real estate prices will probably be some time away,” said Akio Makabe, specially invited professor at Tama University.

Nevertheless, it is a fact that in China the super-rich who have succeeded in IT, trade, and other fields have no more assets, while the rich who have profited from virtual currency and speculation, known as “outbursts,” are struggling to find a place to run away with their money. They have their eyes on Japanese land. A real estate agent familiar with the situation in China said, “The Chinese are buying all the land they can get their hands on right now.

They are speculative buyers, buying at low prices and selling quickly. Meanwhile, an increasing number of people are buying up old hotels in resort areas such as Atami and Hakone and converting them into villas or salons for Chinese customers. One popular choice is Karuizawa, because Bill Gates built his vacation home in Karuizawa. The Chinese have a weakness for big names.

To prevent outflow of funds, the Chinese government has effectively banned the purchase of foreign land. But rich people are using schemes to move their money to Hong Kong, create investment funds in Singapore and Canada, and then buy Japanese real estate to fool the authorities.”

The crisis is intensifying on both sides, with China experiencing further outflows of funds and Japan buying up land.

From the January 20/27, 2023 issue of FRIDAY