Housing market hit on multiple fronts

The Financial Times reported earlier this month that demand in China's already-overstocked housing market could soon decline even further thanks to demographic trends in the country.

Citing recently published research, the Times wrote that China's population of 25-to-49 year-olds - the age group which accounts for most home purchases - will peak in 2015 at roughly 568 million before falling to an estimated 543 million by 2020.

China's rapidly aging population certainly isn't the only problem facing the domestic housing market. Monetary easing measures and loose financial policies have allowed vast amounts of speculative capital to enter the real estate market, pushing home supplies well beyond demand.

Several years of explosive price gains have also made much of the country's residential real estate unaffordable for ordinary buyers.

Not helping matters are the high fees and taxes collected from home buyers. Among developers, rising costs for land, construction, materials, marketing and, according to accounts, kickbacks and bribes for officials have also been passed on to consumers downstream. With so many problematic issues affecting the market, it's no wonder that the dream of homeownership has become little more than a fantasy for so many Chinese people.