What Real Estate Bubble?
The China real estate market is booming – so much that many wonder if it’s a bubble, and if so, when the bubble will burst. The question is crucial for China, where an estimated 20 percent of the economy is exposed to the real estate sector. And any hiccup in the Middle Kingdom, which is leading the nascent global recovery, will reverberate throughout Asia and the world. As chairman of the Hong Kong-based Hang Lung Group, one of the world’s largest commercial real estate firms, Ronnie C. Chan has a privileged vantage point. His firm has been investing in mainland China since 1992. On May 19, 2010, he shared his thoughts as part of the Chazen Institute’s Sir Gordon Wu Distinguished Speaker Forum. Mixing bits of wisdom accrued from a lifetime in East Asian real estate markets with a healthy dose of self-deprecating wit, Ronnie Chan delivered a rousing defense of rising asset prices, rejecting the bubble hypothesis. He argued that in mainland China, demand for housing far outstrips supply
