Real estate survey 2012: Debt dries up in China property

Chinese land and development markets, the engine of Asia-Pacific regional growth since the financial crisis, continued to contract over the past 12 months, although signs of recovery began to filter through by the end of the second quarter of 2012. Real Capital Analytics data, which capture the development site and multi-family residential activity that makes up more than 70% of the Asia-Pacific marketplace, shows that investment activity in Asia Pacific reached $68.3 billion in the second quarter, up 10% on the previous quarter but down 21% on the same period in 2011. Overall, $128.6 billion of commercial properties sold in the first half, down 35% on the previous year – the most significant decline among global zones. The steepest decline was in the land sector, where first-half volume fell by about 50%, to $76.9 billion.