China's Empty Cities

A short film of China's Ghost Towns. In the most population country on the planet, communist build huge cities that nobody can afford to live in. Chinese government is quick to destroy their agricultural landscape to replace them with cities that are unaffordable.

a reply to: mapsurfer_
Actually, the Chinese government may not be as foolish as you make out. People make fun of their decisions and do not understand what they are doing however, how do you think that they are going to support their economy when the West are just struggling to feed themselves (and buying less good from China)? Maybe the Chinese will bring their populations from the villages and provide them with jobs to feed their own economy….

…or not... I do not care to argue about this; let's just wait and see what happens and remember, they have watched and studied the policies and growth of all industrialized nations. They have the ability to change course on a dime and they are the one of the top economies in the world.

a reply to: mapsurfer_

they could use them today as retirement towns for the elderly
seems like 'poor planning' if no one wants to live there

a reply to: mapsurfer_


SnF Just because I give most threads I comment on a star in flag .

I would really like to see someone do a thread on this that can explain it more in debt . From a layman's point I can understand what's going on and have understood for a while. China has not just been building go cities in their country they've done it in Africa and other places .


Robust lending leads to good economy from what I understand . Again as a laymen in international finance. It appears to me that China Borrowing money to build infrastructure. They knew these buildings would not be used and that the Communist Party did not look ahead far enough to see that this system or eventually crash.

I've seen many businesses rise and fall. There's a statement you use for deceptive practices like that . "You can live great on credit for 20 years then the house of cards Falls ". I've seen builders, real estate agents and restaurants subscribing to that policy regularly . But the end result is always the same .


Now I admit my lack of understanding in international finance. So I will ask somebody that knows. Does that policy apply internationally also ?

a reply to: Greathouse

Does that policy apply internationally also ?

As a rule, no...

International lending is extremely complicated but it boils down to this..

The lenders know they are loaning to an entity that is too connected into the world financial infrastructure to be allowed to completely fail. Just look at Greece..

a reply to: mapsurfer_
As an aside from a different story I encountered today. Silicon valley is using buses to give temporary shelter to the homeless.
Yet, somewhere in the world there are empty cities awaiting humans to fill them. There is something VERY wrong with this system.
The best we can do for the homeless in America is to stuff them in buses. In China, there are hi-rise condos sitting empty. No one to live there.
WTF?!

This is exactly why the Chinese stock market crashed and the US as well not long. Way over speculation. In both the US and China you had building for homes and businesses that never materialized. In the US you can find huge housing developments that are completely or almost completely empty. Same problem in China. And then those loan payments come do. Sooner or later your markets crash.

a reply to: MrSpad

Let's not discount China's government control of all their finances..

Study after study after study and experience has always held up that the market will take care of itself, if left alone. It is always when the government tries to get involved that things go wonky. Sometimes the market says things need to fail; some lib bleeding hearts can't accept that so things get artificially supported.

China is a strange market as it is all government controlled.

a reply to: semperfortis

For a creditor debt is ideally never repayed. You pay off the principal first and should you not finish paying all your doing is giving them interest. I like the Greece reference and I gave you a star for that as most people will understand the analogy,but I thinks it's important to say this happens in most places on different more conniving levels

China has had a growth model based on GDP.

A year later, construction on this city, named Yujiapu, has all but grinded to a halt. Investors have pulled out. And a cluster of skyscrapers sit, half-finished – Manhattan on hold.

“It was a failure before it even started,” says Gao Fei inside the Tianjin office of Centaline Property, where he works as director of investment consulting. “The most important thing for Tianjin’s government has always been a high GDP rate. That means the government has to spend a lot of money on huge projects like this one. In China, these kinds of wasteful projects are everywhere.”

For years, high GDP growth has ensured local officials promotions within the Chinese Communist Party.

Source

Officials in the communist system pushing growth figures to get promoted or if growth falls too sharply they probably get suicided. Twisted way to motivate and weird results like empty cities are left behind.
Communism is failing as per usual. Their GDP is on steady decline over the last few years and bubbles are left to burst.

a reply to: CriticalStinker

Oh absolutely

It only get's in most people's faces when it is as large as it is with Greece.

This happens all the time but the quickest way to put people to sleep is talk finances.. LOL

Yes lenders are supposed to know. But the way I rationalize it is, our 2008 catastrophe resulted from a housing bubble also .

a reply to: Greathouse

Again, we see government intervention causing a market catastrophe..It was a bubble because the libs said "give houses to anyone" even though it was obvious in many cases they could not afford them.

No system could stay afloat long in that scenario

originally posted by: semperfortis
a reply to: Greathouse

Again, we see government intervention causing a market catastrophe..It was a bubble because the libs said "give houses to anyone" even though it was obvious in many cases they could not afford them.

No system could stay afloat long in that scenario

And in China they said lets make housing and not let anyone live in them.

When communism collapses, there will be lots of real estate for foreign investment all ready to set up and go. Trump could purchase a whole city instead of a skyscraper.

a reply to: semperfortis

Again, we see government intervention causing a market catastrophe..It was a bubble because the libs said "give houses to anyone" even though it was obvious in many cases they could not afford them. No system could stay afloat long in that scenario

Yep that quote is perfect. It bleeds right in with my thinking . The left and the give a house to everyone program . Made the bubble along with The deceptive men in power money grabbing .

It is the exact same scenario in China with the exception that they don't care if anybody gets a house .


One thing I will say. Liberalism and communism are not strange bedfellows ?????

originally posted by: semperfortis
a reply to: Greathouse

Again, we see government intervention causing a market catastrophe..It was a bubble because the libs said "give houses to anyone" even though it was obvious in many cases they could not afford them.

No system could stay afloat long in that scenario

A lot of these mass constructed homes were way overpriced. Just like the China Hi-Rise condos. A frame and stucco home in America only cost around 30K to construct. Yet, the company selling the homes want 300K? WTF?!
The China situation is even worse. A couple making $900 A MONTH, for sure cannot qualify for ghost city apartment "appraised" at 300K.

a reply to: MrSpad

Yeah, this makes sense to me. Over speculation. All that capital needs to be invested in the gamble for a pay off. That capital will never go to the homeless because where are the huge profits in it.

originally posted by: Greathouse
a reply to: mapsurfer_



I would really like to see someone do a thread on this that can explain it more in debt . From a layman's point I can understand what's going on and have understood for a while.

As I mentioned on another thread, I used to work in finance and I don't understand it. Warren Buffett once stated "Never invest in something that you don't understand."

If it can not be understood, then there is usually something fishy lurking in the background.

When asked about China, Trump said in a recent interview that the Chinese wealthy are buying huge properties in Australia, US, and elsewhere. Essentially they are buying real estate in places they think are more stable than their homeland.

What are these unpopulated cities?

Are they to generate profit? No, since not many in China can afford the rent, and foreign investors are uninterested.
Are they to support current population growth? No, since most cannot afford the rent. And the poor live below the shadows of these vacant cities.
Are they meant to be "Hard Assets" in case of economic collapse? What is a vacant city worth in a depression?

The only logical answer to why these cities exist, is that they are some sort of Ponzi Scheme to siphon money into who knows what, benefiting who knows who....There's your answer

a reply to: mapsurfer_

Great video OP........Take a good hard look all you China is the best country in the world posters.....YA. In another thread a was arguing about the how China has to hit it's Growth targets or it will fail outright and the game will be exposed. This video proves what I was saying and the bubble sitting in China will cause social unrest beyond belief as the people rise up and take power back in a real way.



China will continue to do this because it has to or the lie will be exposed and if the lie is exposed the Chinese government fails to exist anymore......It can not go any other way.

a reply to: Kratos40

I worked selling homes for builder for a few years. They only make an average of 7-12% profit on a house. You can't just count material cost of a home. All subcontractors are making a profit and so is the government. Here in NE Florida, the particular county where I am there is a $6,000 impact fee for the water meter to be put in. As Realtors, each side gets 3%. Wood pricing has skyrocketed because many of mills shut down when the economy crashed. In 2013 roofing costs went up 65%. I have sheets with all the details of every cost and it is hard to believe there is not that much profit. It takes from 6-8 months to build a home from the time the contract is signed. And although there are developments that have had the infrastructure put in, there is no homes in some of them because when the development went belly up from the economic crash and investors and banks lost out, they are involved in major federal lawsuits that are taking years to resolve. We actually bought a couple of subdivisions as soon as the bank walked out of court and had the ability to sell. It is pretty cut throat and if you are late some other developer will beat you to it.



Anyway, there are lots of reasons here in the US. Lots go from $30K to $75K per house. You have to add that to the price also.