File photo of a construction site. Vacancy rates across China are increasing the likelihood of housing bubbles, with Zhu Min, deputy managing director of the IMF, commenting at the World Bank/IMF Spring Meetings 2015 that current figures stand at 1 billion square meters. (Photo/Chinanews.com)
(ECNS) -- Vacancy rates across China are increasing the likelihood of housing bubbles, with Zhu Min, deputy managing director of the IMF, commenting at the World Bank/IMF Spring Meetings 2015 that current figures stand at 1 billion square meters, China Times reports.
The country should work to keep housing prices at a moderate level and further raise sales rates of real estate, it was further suggested.
Earlier, Gan Li, a professor with the Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, released a survey that showed that the housing vacancy rate in China's urban areas was 22.4 per cent, or roughly 49 million units. The figures were later challenged by Ren Zhiqiang, the retired head of property giant Huayuan Group.
So far, there has been no convincing data on the country's vacancy rates, the National Statistics Bureau explaining it was unable to provide such information due to the lack of any clear definition as to what 'housing vacancy rates' are.
Attempts by construction authorities and property administrators to conduct surveys on the housing situation across cities have all failed to materialize, owing to personnel and funding shortages, the newspaper stated.
Non-official organizations have made similar attempts, but industry insiders criticized their findings as being neither representative nor convincing.
Towards the end of 2014, a research agency published the 'ghost city' index rankings of Chinese mainland cities. It also predicted that the country would be home to 50 'ghost cities' in future.
Property developers have shifted new housing projects to smaller cities from first and second-tier cities amid pressures in the past few years amidst adding pressure, though a downturn of the real economy dealt a blow to housing sales. This could make it unavoidable for some third- and fourth-tier cities to become 'ghost cities', the newspaper reported, citing Zhang Liqun, a researcher with the Development Research Center of the State Council, a government think tank.
The good news is that housing vacancy rates will be clearly defined following the enforcement of regulations on real estate registration last month, Feng Jun, chief economist at the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, told the newspaper.
